Random Acts of Kindness

You know, people keep asking me, "You're not from Boston, are you?" and when I say no, they say they thought so because I'm "too nice" and then they guess I'm from the Midwest.


I'm not, just in case anyone stumbles through here who doesn't already know this.


But I think Boston's selling itself short with this attitude.  Bostonians are not nearly so grouchy as they make themselves out to be.

I've seen strangers hold doors for each other, smiling and making eye contact while doing so.

I've seen people signing up at donation drives on the street.

I've seen people jump up on the subway and insist someone older/very young/obviously tired/pregnant/carrying too much take their seats.

I've seen entire subway cars full of people rearrange themselves to keep a family seated together.

I've seen half the people in an over-packed subway car rearrange themselves to help prevent a two-year-old boy from losing his balance.

I regularly see Borders customers stopping to help give each other directions, just because they overheard a conversation where someone sounded confused.

And tonight, the driver carefully stopped the T with the door directly in front of me, where I stood waiting under a roof, instead of somewhere down along the stretch where he was supposed to stop, just because it was raining and he saw I didn't have an umbrella.


So anyway, I say Boston's not really mean.  They just want you to think they are.