Random acts of kindness

You always hear about these random acts of kindness, but in this current situation faced by so many will we become more kind and generous or less?

I put a post up on Facebook asking if anyone was selling a pasta machine so I could make my son his pasta and within minutes my neighbour was at the door with pasta, I had 5 more offers of pasta from people in my community, it meant so much that people would give away something that’s so difficult to find at the moment, most for someone they’ve never met.

In a funny turn of events my neighbour who gave me pasta put a post up asking if anyone had weights, oddly I had some that were to big for me so knocked round and gave him those, I like that we were able to help each other. I’ve seen so many nice things on social media, paintings in windows, green/red card in windows so your neighbours know if you need help, offers of help in picking up shopping and medications for those that can’t, letters from children to care homes that can’t currently have visitors, this is all over the country, people trying to do nice things, to keep morale up and help each other.

On the other side of this people are panicking, and panic buying, and it’s going to cripple us if they don’t stop! Our emergency workers can’t buy food as it’s gone when they get to the shops, parents can’t get their poorly children medication, trolleys full of shopping are emptied into cars and then they go back for more, when will it sink in that this is doing more harm than good? While ensuring you have enough of what you need is sensible and perhaps getting more store cupboard stuff than usual is ok, I’m left wondering, where are they storing it all? Are they going to have to throw away the fresh food that they didn’t actually need? Surely at some point the stock Pilers will have enough and stop shopping leaving enough on the shelves for the elderly, the nhs staff, the teachers, the supermarket workers that they have abused?!?!

On that note, is it just me? I would never be so rude as to have a go at people doing their job in this kind of situation! They are at a higher risk of being infected, they are faced with hoards of people, long shifts and shortages, and inevitably people screaming at them when they have to say “no love, you cant buy 15 packs of loo roll and as for the paracetamol its always been the rule you can only buy 2 packs at a time so the 25 you have there is just not happening no matter how loud you scream because it’s illegal”

It’s a miracle the shops actually still have staff! I guess I struggle to see how the human race can be so kind and giving on one hand and so selfish and mean on the other, I prefer to be kind, I may not be everyone’s cup of tea but that’s not a problem I like my space which is a bonus right now,

I wonder how many people have experienced generosity compared to greed in the last week? Who can come out of this the other side and say I helped someone, I made someone smile in the darkest of days and who will walk away with the knowledge that their actions were shameful?! We’re still in the early days of this pandemic, we need to slow down and remember the shops aren’t closing! To those who are spreading generosity and promoting help and kindness thank you! Keep going, you’re amazing!