Let's Count Our Blessings

From today's Straits Times Forum (thankfully, not in print but only on the website) :

Stranger's courtesy at supermarket

I WENT to a FairPrice supermarket last Thursday to buy some eggs. I thought that was all I needed, so I did not grab a shopping basket.

Soon, I realised I needed a few more items and I struggled to carry them all with my two hands, almost breaking the eggs in the process.

A Caucasian man, who must have seen my near-calamity, handed me his basket and said: 'Here, you can have my basket.' I said: 'What about you?'

His reply? 'It's okay, I can take another one.'

I kept thanking him and he rewarded me with a big smile.

I want to say a big thank you to this kind stranger for his simple act of kindness, which warmed the otherwise cold afternoon.

Lyn Loh (Ms)

I get rather worried when I read readers' letters like these (and there is almost one such contribution every day). Are things so bad back home that such small and random acts of kindness actually move people to write in ?

Taxi-drivers returning wallets or mobile phones ? That's fine, and very commendable during such times when the temptation to keep the items is greater. (In this regard, I think Singaporean taxi-drivers are a lot more honest than their HK counterparts - the HK taxi lost items hotline staff has been known to suggest offering rewards to raise the chances of finding the lost items)

But I've seen letters from readers thanking strangers for opening doors, letting them board taxis ahead of them, thanking waiters or cashiers for smiling ... ... simple things like that. I assume that you'd have said "Thank you" there and then (or do it a few times like Ms Loh above), be on your way and it would have been a happy day for all.

Perhaps the question lies not with the readers, but the editors. Hundreds of people write in to the ST every day, on matters big and small. Was there so much chaff that such trivial matters get their nods ?

I suppose if the editorial thresholds at the local HK English papers are lowered (they tend to print letters on serious stuff like English education policies, harbour reclamation, historical conservation etc) I might just write in to thank the cha-chaan-teng waiter for giving me two more minutes yesterday to read the menu, the taxi-driver for acknowledging my presence when he took my money ... ... I gotta be thankful for those little things in my life.