Random Acts of Kindness in Manhattan | Accelerate Success with Lorraine Moore

Media reports highlight the divisions among us every day. Anti-vaccination protests in Canada are blocking ambulances and patients requiring urgent care. The crisis in Afghanistan is a humanitarian tragedy of epic proportions. A US Supreme Court ruling supporting an abortion ban in Texas may affect women well beyond the borders of that state. Whatever your position on any of these, you are peering across a fence at others with an opposing view.

For this reason, and others, I was appreciative of the many random acts of kindness I experienced in Manhattan this week. As Springsteen said on stage Wednesday evening, when he was growing up in New Jersey, there were warnings to stay away from New York City, as “you will get killed there.”

We stayed in Harlem and relished the street music, laughter, colourful clothes, and great food. People were friendly and helpful. We walked most of the island over four days and rode the subway several times. We were also in the subway station and outdoors during the torrential rain and flash flooding on Wednesday night.

Here are just a few of the random acts of kindness we experienced or observed:

When entering a public toilet in a park, a woman immediately called out to let me know that there was no toilet paper and brought me some.
When the subway kiosk could not read either of my credit cards, a man stepped up and showed me how to insert and remove the card in a different way so that it would work.
In another subway incident, my wet metro pass would not work (500-year rains anyone?). After trying a few times, someone swiped their own metro pass to grant me access.
When subway trains were suspended, a young woman from Queens walked through the full station, offering to take others with her to Queens — by car.
A man walking by a coffee shop, turned back when, through the window, he saw a woman exiting with a stroller. He went back to the shop, opened the door for the woman, and then continued on his way.
A doorman stepped out onto the sidewalk and stopped a passerby to tell him that there was a wasp on his shoulder, and to wave it away.

At the Springsteen concert, the woman sitting beside me had flown from Austria for the show. It was her thirtieth time to see Springsteen. Originally from Jersey, but living in Austria for three decades, she had returned to the US after two years. Her family in Queens warned her to stay off the subway as “it is not like it was two years ago.” Donned in our masks (as was virtually everyone) and keeping our distance, we rode the trains half a dozen times. And as evidenced by my experience, people were helpful and respectful.

Thank you, Manhattan residents, for showing some of your best sides this week.

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