Last night I went with some friends to see the movie "Evan Almighty". In the movie, God (played by the brilliant Morgan Freeman) commands Evan Baxter to build an ark for the imminent flood. Without giving too much away, let me just say there are some truly, truly funny parts in the middle of this movie that had me choking on laughter for a good 15 minutes. Don't be mistaken however, this movie is not the best thing I've ever seen. The setup at the beginning is completely obvious and they really hit you over the head with the message. There were a couple of comedic gags that are very obvious and hit completely "below the belt", but otherwise it was a pretty good movie. During the previews there was another Steve Carell movie that looked really good too . . . Dan in Real Life.
One of the things I discovered last night was the idea of the ARK. No, not the boat, an Act of Random Kindness. A lot of people probably call these random acts of kindness, but I rather like the acronym ARK and how it all ties together with the bigger message of the movie. Last night on the skytrain on the way home after the movie, I experienced a real-life ARK! I was sitting on the train feeling really tired (it was past midnight) and just wanting to be home. When the train pulled into Gateway station (one stop before mine), I saw a transit officer outside the train. Thinking he was going to get on and check fares I bent down to dig my bus pass out of my purse. When I looked up, the officer was standing in front of me, holding a white rose bud to me (it looked as if it had just been picked off a rose bush). He said to me "have a good night!" and then got off the train just before the doors closed. It was so random and sweet and totally made my evening (which had already been pretty darn good to begin with). Anyway, the picture above is of that rose, which opened this morning. That simple gesture brought me happiness and I've been in a good mood ever since. I want to perform an ARK for someone else now . . . and I strongly encourage everyone to perform an ARK this week!
2 comments:
Awe!! So nice!!
I know. It totally made my day! Interestingly, they have a Random Acts of Kindness type program happening in Langley right now that's focused on paying it forward (someone told me that when I told them this story) so maybe he was from Langley? I think that's totally cool! The friend who told me this also told me that her husband did something nice for someone in line at the drive-thru . . . he paid for their food! How sweet would that be if you were the person whose food he paid for?
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