"Make Someone's Day"
from The Secret to Living is Giving
by Mac Anderson
"Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves." —James Barrie
Opportunities abound every day to give to others. You just need to be ready to act on them…to make someone's day…and in doing so, to change someone's life. A story submitted to Random Acts of Kindness is one that knocks the concept out of the park.
When I was in college, I worked part-time at a sporting good store. There was a kid who would come by two or three times a week to visit this baseball mitt that he wanted to buy. My manager and I would joke about him not only because he was so dedicated and persistent, but also because he had picked the best and most expensive mitt in the store to obsess over.
This went on for months. The kid would come in, and you could tell he was so relieved that the mitt was still there. He would put it on, pound his fist into the pocket a couple of times, and then very carefully put it back onto the shelf and leave. Finally, one day he came in with a shoebox and a smile about eight miles wide and announced that he wanted to buy the mitt. So the manager brought the mitt over to the cash register while the kid counted out a shoebox worth of nickels, quarters and dimes. His stash came to exactly $19.98. The mitt cost $79.98, not including tax. My manager looked at the price tag, and sure enough the number 7 was a little smudged, enough that a desperately hopeful seven-year-old could imagine it to be a 1. Then he looked at me, smiled, and very carefully recounted. "Yep, exactly $19.98." Wrapping up the mitt, he gave it to the boy.
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