Buford is my Olde English Bulldogge and he's got a very keen nose for Bullsh@t!!! Sooo this is his weekly rant on a matter he sniffed out as total bullsh@t!!!
Kindness and Compassion only cost us our humility. I was reminded the other day, of something that happened a few years back, when a friend's Kindness was met by another person's ignorance and I having experienced the same ignorance from people. Ironically both our stories are to do with a Tim Hortons employee judging and being rude towards a person who is down on their luck. We saw this when we chose to buy these people a coffee & food, to just be kind and show these unfortunate people that there are still human's in the world who care. The Tim Hortons on Ontario Street in Kingston, Ontario; which ironically is now out of business, use to put a time frame on a customer; based on what the bought. At least this is what they would tell people they deemed as less than worthy of human decency. When I drove Taxi Part-time, I would often enough pick up this fella, let's call him Bob. He would take Taxi rides and he could only afford small flat rates fares, so not alot of drivers would take him. To me however money is money and most times I was in the area that he was calling from anyways. So rather than sit still not making any money, I figured may as well make some money doing something. When I drove Taxi, I took the time to get to know this man. I asked him, in a respectful way, what his story is and did so by sharing my story with him, showing humility. In doing so, I found out that Bob is one of our wounded warriors (injured veterans) that our glorious Canadian Government screwed over on a medical pension, for a broken back in the line of duty. They denied his claim, based on him forgetting to mention on his enlistment papers that he had surgery on a broken leg as a child. They claimed that this made him weak and more prone to future injury. Apparently a normal leg would have been able to handle the weight of the piece of tank equipment, that fell onto him. So Bob, like many Canadians, can't work due to his injuries and is limited to a small disability pension. Bob lived in a room of a shared accommodation home, to which most of his money goes into bills. So Bob is very limited as to what he can do with his time, due to not having any exposable income like other more fortunate Canadians may have. One freezing winter day, while I was driving Taxi, I stopped at the above mentioned Tim Hortons for a break. I saw Bob shivering outside in the cold with a Tim Hortons coffee. So I suggested for him to sit inside, drink his coffee and warm up. What Bob told me next really pissed me off and pushed my a$$hole button big-time. To which Buford called total Bullh@t on as well. Bob had told me that a small coffee is only worth 10 minutes of warmth inside of this Tim Hortons. So I took Bob inside the Tim Hortons and I bought him a sandwhich, bowl of soup, muffin and two extra large coffees. Then I talked to the manager who was an absolute a$$hole, but on this day he met the bigger a$$hole (me). I pointed over to Bob, who was now enjoying his meal, and purchased warmth. I said to this manager, "You see that man over there, he fought for your right to be an ignorant a$$hole and that man is also a human being! Why don't you try showing some respect and dignity instead of judging people based on how they look." I told this Manager, "rather it's a small coffee or a feast, that man is a paying customer when he buys something in here. I see people sitting here as a group hanging out talking for hours, only purchasing a couple coffees and yet no one say a word to those people. So now that I just invested into his time clock here, I guess you have no need to harass him anymore." The manager told me, that he had no idea what I was talking about. So I said, "Good let's keep it that way, because when there's an article published about this crap, the public will know what I'm talking about, if this garbage happens again. I briefly explained to the Manager that Bob isn't homeless, he doesn't beg for money, he's not a druggie or booze hound. Bob has a room that he rents and that he can barely afford on disability (like so many other Canadians). That it was very hard for Bob to accept my generosity today, because everytime he accepts help that he needs from people, it robs him of a little bit of his pride as a man and as a Veteran of a country that he loved enough to fight for, but this country won't fight for him. I told the manager to think about today the next time he wants to judge someone before knowing their story, because it could just as easily be him in Bob's shoes today. It's pretty simple folks, we live in a free country and when you have the choice to be anything you want, just choose to be kind. Kindness is the simplest & most beautiful part of humanity and it doesn't cost anything most of the time, it just costs your humility. If you need a reminder of this, listen to the song by Tim McGraw called "Humble & Kind":
https://youtu.be/awzNHuGqoMc
Like Dr. Phil says,
"Be kind to yourself & eachother"
When I shared all of this with Buford, he gave me the look that he's giving all you in the picture for this weekly rant. This is the look he gives when he smells Bullsh@t.
So my friends Buford calls "People's Lack of Kindness & Compassion Today", total Bullsh@t!!!
Commenti