girlsdontcry's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OK, it's another throwing up story, but bear with me. Once, I threw up in the middle of Liverpool Street station, just after I'd gotten off the tube. It wasn't because I was drunk. I think it was some sushi I ate, I'd been sitting on the train feeling increasingly nauseous. When I'm nauseous, my sense of smell becomes really strong, and every bad smelling person in the whole of London seemed to be on that carriage. Normally I'm pretty in control of these things, but when I finally got off the tube, there was no way I was going to make it, and I just threw up all over the place, on the floor, on my brand new winter coat. And something amazing happened. In the middle of this incredibly busy place, just as all the commuters were starting to head home, a woman stopped. She asked me if I was OK, and if I needed her to get some water. Then she actually went off and came back with a bottle of water she'd bought for me, and napkins. At the same time, some guy who worked at the ticket counter in the station had also come out, he gave me a cup of water and some toilet paper. I was so amazed. Strangers helping me. People always think it never happens here. And it changed me, not in a huge way, but in a small way. Now I do try to help people. Not save them, nothing radical. I don't take homeless people for lunches or invite them to live in my house. But if I see someone lost and I think I might know the way, I'll ask them if they need help. That's it really. It's nothing huge, I know it isn't. Sometimes it doesn't work, you can't help, you don't speak the same language. Other times they don't even say thanks, and sometimes you can see they're surprised that someone has been friendly to them, right here in London. But I so like the idea that, in the middle of this world, with so much selfishness, craziness and plain old badness, you can just throw in a minute, random piece of something positive. This is where I would bid you all to do something randomly nice today... except I once told someone about what had happened to me, and they said there was some crappy sounding Hollywood movie where people do random acts of kindness. It pisses me right off that this movie exists, because I'd hate for anyone to think that I take a single of my ideas from some crappy, feelgood movie. And also because I know how many other people out there probably feel the same, and are put off even doing something just because of that. So, I'm just going to carry on -- I feel kind of bad that I'm being so self congratulatory here. But I don't know, I guess if that nice woman -- whose face I can't remember -- knew that her one simple act of kindness had inspired someone, well, I hope she'd be pleasantly surprised. 8:21 p.m. - 2002-09-10 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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