Amazing Acts of Kindness from Strangers

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Amazing Acts of Kindness from Strangers

Postby Hyo Razuki » Thu Sep 03, 2015 4:46 pm

So has this thing ever happened to you? The kind of moment when a stranger unexpectedly helps you out in an everyday situation or just does something really helpful or awesome for you without expecting anything in return.

I think they probably just do it because they're awesome people but when it happens, those people totally make my day. The kind of experience which at least parly restores your faith in humanity.

Here's an example which happened to me once:

1. I was at this metal concert once, standing in a crowd of something like 40k people. I don't know what exactly happened but suddenly my throat went really dry and I had to cough very hard. I was there with a friend who was just getting us a new round of drinks, so I was alone at that moment. A guy who was moshing with some other guys stopped and tapped me on the shoulder from behind saying "Are you OK, dude? Can I help you?" The cough went out and I told him I was fine and thanked him.

How cool was that? And it gets better: A couple of minutes later the cough came back and that time, two college girls standing next two me asked me if I needed help. I first thought they were scared of me puking on them, so I said "Don't worry ladies, I'm not drunk, I'm not gonna puke. I'm driving today," to which they replied "Nooooo, we didn't mean it that way! We just wanna make sure you're OK." A few minutes later again, my friend came back with a water for me and a beer for himself. After a few sips of water I was fine again. But still, within five minutes or so, I had three complete strangers offering to help me out. After the show, while driving back home, I told my friend about what happened while he was getting drinks and we were both moved by how kind-hearted some people are.

What are some of your experiences whith strangers which were awesome?

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Re: Amazing Acts of Kindness from Strangers

Postby amiga1200 » Thu Sep 03, 2015 5:00 pm

honestly, absolutely none.
unless you count it as basic human decency/empathy.
where you was, the majority wanted to be there (the concert) and that's the difference.
on the streets, never seen it.
that said, a year ago, an old lady had fallen over and cracked her skull on the floor.
she was surrounded and a huge bloke was rifling through her pockets and handbag.
i called the police and the ambulance, a1+ to the authorities for being on-point, and helped the old woman.
turn out, NOBODY in the vicinity even bother do make a call. (why i did, the police confirmed it.)
the lady was grateful for saving her from the public parasites, and i went to crown court to back up my statements (written) and the police claim to be actively seeking the ones caught on CCTV (public) to imprison them.
...
on that day, after the scene died down, i was surrounded by meathead idiots demanding an answer:
do you feel good you did a good deed?
are you better than us?
my response:
absolutely NOT!
you sicken me to the core, pulling a judgment for something that's basic human decency, and trying to make me feel bad because i'm NOT one of you CONSERVATIVE working class SLAVE type scum .
i didn't see any of you help out. if you're going to attack me, do it before i call the police again.
nothing happened, they skulked away.
...
no, not seen any evidence, but i wasn't at a concert, or a gathering where virtually all that's there, want to be there.
on the streets, nobody wants to be there, they have to because reasons/life.
...
folks are helpful if they wanted to be there in the first place, like other venues.
...
won't stop me making the call, as i expect the same when the chips are down. (reality is different.)
...
good post! :mrgreen:
[edit]
typo.

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Re: Amazing Acts of Kindness from Strangers

Postby fittersau » Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:23 am

Good karma is good karma. Bad karma will come back with interest..

Glad you have some good stories, make sure you share the love when opportunity presents.

I saw this old korean man struggling with a heavy trolley while crossing the road on a down hill slope. I went to help him to save him from hitting a car and gain control of the trolley.

He suddenly froze and gave me a dirty look as if I was going to steal his trolley.. I asked if he was OK and he waved me away suspiciously.. so I just turned and walked off, lol'ing inside. Sometimes people don't want random acts of kindness. :rotflmao:

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Re: Amazing Acts of Kindness from Strangers

Postby elfshadowreaper » Fri Sep 04, 2015 10:02 am

I can't think of any that happened to me off the top of my head but once when my wife and I went to Disney World there was a little boy, probably around 7 years old, crying at the front turnstiles of Magic Kingdom and I thought, "Nobody cries at Disney World." So I asked him what was wrong. It was obvious he was really upset, but I guess in the hustle and bustle of people trying to enter the park, nobody noticed him. He told me he lost his dad. So I went to a cast member and told them the boy's father was lost(children aren't lost at Disney, only parents). I stayed with him until they could find his dad. Turns out, "Dad of the Year" had gone on into the park without him. I saw the kid later and he was having fun. Felt like smacking the dad though.

I live in the south though, where southern hospitality is a part of life. So it would probably take a lot for me to really notice someone going the extra mile. I still hold the door open for women and children, and if it's a guy I'll hold it until they can get it. I guess it goes back to the Golden Rule for me.

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Re: Amazing Acts of Kindness from Strangers

Postby Hyo Razuki » Fri Sep 04, 2015 4:00 pm

@Amiga: The scene you described sounds so eerie... Makes me uncomfortable just reading it. Glad you did something and on top of that still had the balls to testify to the police. I have a lot of respect for that. Seems like a normal thing every grown up person would do but sadly, it is far from that.

Hmmm, yeah maybe people being in a place because they want to be has a lot to do with people's willingness to help. But I have experienced an awesome display of humanity in a place where people have to be before. Haven't written it in my OP because I wasn't directly involved but maybe this story can give you hope, so here we go.

3 or 4 years back, I had a student job in a different part of town when I was still in university. As class mostly didn't go out before 3 or 4 pm I always had to work late to make my hours. So every day I worked I had to make kind of a lengthy subway ride back home (about 40 minutes). One night I was sitting on the train back home at like 10 pm. The train was almost empty due to the time because it was a week day's night.

Then this nasty drunk fuck got on the train. He could barely stand on his feet and sank into a seat. A woman in her 40s was sitting in a seat right opposite from where he was sitting, on the opposite side of the aisle. I was on the same side of the aisle as her, about 5 meters away from the lady. Then suddenly the drunk bastard started talking bullshit to that lady. He didn't sexually harrass her but aksed some really stupid questions, like what has she got in her handbag and did she go shopping that day, etc. He also said some real creepy stuff about killing animals. He was talking very loudly and you could see the woman getting more and more uncomfortable.

So I looked around and there was just an old lady and a college girl in that compartment which both couldn't have done shit against that drunk idiot. The drunk guy was a lot bigger than me but given the fact that he was piss drunk it looked like I could take him on. So I thought to myself "If things go out of hand it boils down to me. I gotta help her!". I was making plans in my head, trying to make eye contact with the lady trying to tell her that I'd get her out of there if he was gonna walk over to her. I would probably have told the drunk dickhead to fuck off and would have just taken the woman to the other end of the train or something like that, to avoid physical confrontation as long as possible.

But before anything happened a guy showed up. He must have come from an angle of the train I had not seen. It was a dude in his 20s, looking like your average conservative working class or lower middle class guy.;-) . He didn't look tough at first but then he took off his jacket and revealed some very muscular arms underneath. He sat down right next to the drunk guy and faced him, looking him right into the eye. The drunkard got scared shitless and said something like "No man, please don't do it!". The good guy didn't say anything and didn't do anything. He just faced the drunkard. The drunkard didn't say one more word, the woman got off at her stop, everything went fine.

That incident gave me a lot of hope back then. I was just glad there are people who have the balls and the decency to help weaker ones in trouble. To be fair, not everyone has arms like he does but another problem is that most people aren't even aware of others needing help because they're too busy staring at their fucking phone. One thing is the ability to help, the other is the social empathy which makes you do it.

Kind of a long story and it's just a personal experience but maybe this can give you some hope.

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Re: Amazing Acts of Kindness from Strangers

Postby Riku Rose » Fri Sep 04, 2015 4:33 pm

It amazes me how many people will stand by and watch shit without stepping in like the above post. My old man once see some drunk guy harassing two women at a bus stop and when he had a word with him the guy took a swing at him but my dad managed to get him to the ground and hold him there while he waited for the police. This was in the middle of a town centre where everyone else was just watching or walking past. Everyone clapped him afterwards and he just called them a bunch of embarrassing cowards.

My family came from South East London in the 60's and 70's which was filled with working class people who worked hard to make a living and weren't afraid to say if they felt something was wrong. Having grown up in a household with that environment I notice how much people try to avoid any confrontation and aren't used to being called out on bullshit or told when they're acting like arseholes. If someone try's to cut in line for something I seem to be the only one to tell them to join the back and people seem shocked when I call them out on not saying thank you when I hold open a door for them.

I used to work for a lovely old lady who I would honestly say is the nicest person I've ever known. When the shop she ran got broken into 3 times and we knew who it was it amazed me how many people wouldn't help us take matters into our own hands when she had done so much for them in the past.

It really quite saddens me that with this question all I can think of is times I've seen shit and I seem to be the only one to step in. How not even a group of 3 or 4 people will step into the middle of a guy whose about to hit a woman sickens me.

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Re: Amazing Acts of Kindness from Strangers

Postby amiga1200 » Fri Sep 04, 2015 10:37 pm

^^ agreed!
...
@ Hyo Razuki.
honestly, i wasn't brave, but merely stupid. (just wanted to stick it to the massively built thugs.)
the odds were stacked against me, and i was braced for an all-out brawl involving glass bottles, dead serious.
my motives were simple:
i don't wanna live in a world where the old or weakened are a target, and the masses are fine with that.
what riku said about hid old man, i was in the same frame of mind...i think?! (i can't account for the man, but i bet he was livid and any member of the public got a bright idea, he'd probably have took their heads right off. that's the frame of mind i was in myself.)
i'm a violent person by nature, or should i say, RESOLVE! (very few folks where words and reasoning count, so the extra 'talk' is usually a last resort.)
...
i have no hope, but i do recognize results, and the more positive they are, the better for us all at the end of the day.
in any case, thanks for sharing. :mrgreen:

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Re: Amazing Acts of Kindness from Strangers

Postby Hyo Razuki » Sat Sep 05, 2015 12:29 am

amiga1200 wrote: i'm a violent person by nature, or should i say, RESOLVE! (very few folks where words and reasoning count, so the extra 'talk' is usually a last resort.)
...
i have no hope, but i do recognize results, and the more positive they are, the better for us all at the end of the day.
in any case, thanks for sharing. :mrgreen:


Nothing wrong with being a bit violent or at least resolved as long as one doesn't attack people, especially weaker ones. :D Another big factor in this "looking away" problem Riku and you described is that most mothers (and fathers as well) in modern western societies educate their daughters to be men (or at least to try to emulate qualities which a sane person would consider as typically masculine) while they educate their sons to be essentially pussies.

But I'll leave it at that for now. This is going too far off topic. :king:

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