The statement “I gave money to a stranger online to buy a bra” usually triggers a series of uncomfortable questions. “Is this a girl who only has fans?” or “Is it for nudes?” or “Why are you paying people to see nudes?” The first reactions to this statement are all acceptable. But I gave money to a stranger online and got nothing in return.
A young woman was venting when I saw a post on the social media app Reddit. It was her 25th birthday and she was called to work, a fairly common inconvenience in adult life. But as I read on, I saw her express how hard it was for her to make ends meet as a single mom, making $13 an hour at a call center, and how she wished she could spend her birthday with her daughter instead of working .
She talked about how she was trying so hard but she couldn’t seem to catch a break. I checked her posting history and saw that she had been struggling for several years. Her most recent posts are about how to prevent failing bras from completely falling apart and asking how to fix them. Her history shows attempts to provide social services for her daughter, or how she wrote letters to the power company asking them not to cut off her power.
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I sent her a private message asking if I could get her some birthday gifts. She was surprised and sent me her Venmo message. I gave her a few hundred dollars and a gift card from a company that makes durable bras. (Forgive me for not naming it, I had to Google it.)
A little bit of random acts of kindness on the internet
Her response after receiving my gift was: “Thank you very much, now I can buy my daughter a cake.” I wished her a happy birthday and continued with the rest of my radio show. I wasn’t planning on talking to anyone about it, but then Pleasant Paul (Paul Holden) asked me to comment and I thought I could use it to encourage others to do the same.
My point is that random acts of kindness keep our society functioning and can serve anyone at any time. So, do yourself a favor and find someone to whom you can freely extend kindness and give it away. Not for “karma”, not for “good vibes”, but because you can.
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