Kind Act
I would have to say that I am not a kind person. I don't donate to those "street performers" at Mrt stations, old ppl selling tissues, students selling flags & even the disabled begging for money. Well, from what I know, there are only 2 licsened tissue sellers in Singapore, and there has always been new reports about China "begger" organisation that comes Singapore to beg for a living. Together with those dissapointing news about N*F and R*nCi fraud of funds, who knows where your $ would eventually end up? To the needy or as part someone's golden toliet bowl & biz class airtix? The last donation I've ever made was most prob to the Red Cross Society for the Sichuan Earthquake few yrs ago.
Well, but who says kindness must come from donation? A simple act of kindness like giving up seats to elderly will do. Yesterday, I gave up a seat to one old lady. She never said anything and jus sat. I don't expect any word of appreciation from her either. I've used to be upset about these ppl, eg: giving up seats to pregnant lady but still give you blackface, old lady cooling the seats before sitting, give seat to young children but the mother sat instead, etc. And the following incident sorta change my mindset:
I was working in Fortis Bank located at Raffles Place during my post A-level holiday. So every morning, I got to take Mrt from Woodlands to Raffles Place which was a really really long journey. And my job required me to wear covered heels and so standing in the train throughout the whole journey was a torture to me.
Then that day, I was fortunate to find a seat soon after I got on the train and was happily reading "my paper". Not long after, I realised there was a old lady standing right infront of me. That set me into thinking: should I give up the seat to her? Or should I just wait for others to give her? Then, I kept debating with myself for around 5-10 mins when I finally decided to gave up the seat. So, I sorta acted that I have just raised my head from reading the newspaper and "noticed" her, then offered her the seat.
She thanked me profusely, when the person sitting beside her leave the seat, she even quickly "chop" the seat and asked me to sit down. This made me even more ashamed of myself selfishness. The fact that I took 5-10 mins to decide whether or not to offer seat to her, she treated me like I was her great saviour. When she leave the train, she thanked me once again.. arghh..feel really really bad at that moment... I don't deserve the thank at all!!!
Jus to side track a bit, while i was standing that time, I scanned the row where I've just sat. All of those seated were office ladies, some listening to MP3, some reading newspaper and some doing nothing~~ I mean like wth, I'm one of them. I was among these selfish young ladies...
So moral of the story? I have always hope that those whom I have helped can appreciate my kindness by at least thanking me. But it turns out that I would feel ashamed of myself when someone actually thank me. 做善事不求回报，this is one of the most common chinese idioms... Now, I think that doing a kind act not because you are kind enough to do others a favour but it is something that everyone ought to do.
