Ryan Garcia’s daughter, Isla, was born in July of last year. Like most new fathers, Ryan found himself changed after her arrival. Luckily, instead of subjecting us to awful poetry or interpretive dance to celebrate his daughter’s arrival (don’t tell me your Facebook feed isn’t full of some hideous forms of celebration from new parents…just me? Crap.), Mr. Garcia decided to take the new joy he had for life and apply it in a positive way. When it came time to make his New Year’s resolution, he discarded “predictable” goals like losing weight and decided to go with something else: to do something that would “inspire” his daughter in the future. Garcia decided he wanted “to be a better person.”
There was no picture of Ryan Garcia available so this picture will serve as a proxy.
No small feat, to be sure. So, what did he do? Well, he started a “kindness revolution”. He has made 2012 his year of random acts of kindness every day. Yes, every single day. Some mornings I can barely make my own damn breakfast, but he has committed himself to touching someone’s life every day this year. So far he has done rad things like:
- Tracking down his 6th grade teacher and thanking him for making an impact on his life
- Cleaning off all the snow from cars on his block post-storm
- Taking an Iraq War veteran and his family to a Northwestern University basketball game
- Complimenting 25 random strangers in one day
- Buying lunch for firefighters in his city
- Playing with older dogs at the animal anti-cruelty society
You know, sometimes I feel like the resident Debbie Downer here at MoxieBird. My talented co-contributors are always writing hysterical pieces and I am constantly lamenting the crappy state of the world. I am a natural born pessimist and sometimes I have a hard time seeing the good with so much awful shit going on. And, I dunno, this got me, man. The little random acts of kindness–someone paying for your coffee or helping you carry your groceries or donating to charity in your name–really matter and they happen far too seldom. I really applaud this guy and the lesson he is imparting to his daughter.
So, I am going to head into the weekend thinking the world is a little less crummy because of this man and use it as a reminder to randomly act kindly. What kind thing can you do today?
