"I always relied on the kindness of strangers"

Best place in the world.

 The title is a Tennessee Williams reference.  I thought it was suiting.

      Some time ago, I was standing in line to check out my usual grocery at a west-coast store called "Sprouts."  This place is kind of like a Trader Joe's but with more variety.  Anywho, while I was there, I was talking to the cashier-- she was apparently a little perturbed by some news with her family or something-- I don't remember the details, but in short, she was just unhappy.  I exchange my twenty-dollar-bill for some change and a receipt and begin walking toward the automatic doors.  I then proceed to tell this distraught cashier tell her that "I hoped her day goes better" over my usual "have a good day."

     There was a confused look in her face-- like it was the first time she'd ever hear those words before!

     I left that Sprouts and I still keep thinking about that conversation.  It wasn't because she was going through that time; nor was it for the amount of groceries I got for twenty bucks [NOT an endorsement for the store]!  Rather, I still keep thinking about why she made the face that she did to me!

     I'm Korean and I was born in the US.  I served in the Korean program for most of my mission, yet I felt some small disconnect with Caucasians at that moment-- do white people appreciate me saying such things?

     So while kind of being haunted by that thought, I realized some important things about life.  It doesn't matter who you are, if you know you're being cared about by other [random] people, you feel a lot better about yourself.

     Except for me.  I'm just weird.

     However, the main point is that probably 99% of the world is struggling right now.  This very instant.  In one form or another.  Even if you're not a missionary (or if you are, better on ya!), you can pitch in your benefit toward society with even just a simple act of kindness-- the easiest and most effective of them all is that of listening.

     Do it with your ears.

     Do it with your mouth.

     Do it with your hands.

     Do it with your eyes.

     There's a ton of different ways to do it, but to make a person feel loved is absolutely paramount in just about any situation where you're engaged with someone else in an intercourse of words.

     Honestly, I don't know what that cashier would have thought about my words, but I know that she probably wasn't made even more aggravated.  So, play your part!  You'll get brownie points in heaven and perhaps even a small act of kindness may just turn into a giant snowball that'll crush all evil in its path, being one step closer to the utopia that we may know heaven to be-- on Earth!

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." -1 Corinthians 13:4