> saw the firemen going by at 5:15 a.m., and I dashed them off a thank you note for what they do

I'm all for a favor or a word of kindness to a fellow citizen, but it would never occur to me to thank a fireman or a cop in a big city.

Sure, out in rural areas, firemen are volunteers, and they're true heroes, but in the big cities they're unionized thugs who get utterly insane benefits and pay for relatively little work.

Here in the Boston area our firemen are best known to cocaine abuse, and an utterly bizaare coincidence where lots of them take over their supervisors jobs for a day when the supervisor is out sick...and then they just HAPPEN to slip on stairs the day the senior guy is out. Oddly, this lets them get full disability retirement, calculated not at their own pay rate, but at the pay rate of the supervisor.

The Boston Globe has run lots of articles on the abuses, but the unionized thugs are so good at paying off politicians with campaign donations that nothing changes.

So, yes, tell your fellow citizen where he can get 20 minutes free on the meter. But flip an enthusiastic middle finger to .gov thugs.

> I told a woman I passed that she looked pretty

If a guy does that, the reaction is normally going to be a lot less positive.

Man's Search For Meaning by Victor Frankl is perhaps the greatest non-fiction book I have ever read. The concentration camp memories are at the same time heartbreaking and awesomely inspiring, all while being strangely unemotional.

If the survivors could rebuild their lives after what they went through, our trials seem puny. Still, it is a difficult question, one that seems to be harder to resolve with the glut of information we encounter each day.

Shakespeare got it right on:
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on;
And our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

Love this!

Eric,
Absolutely agree about Man's Search For Meaning.
Incredibly poignant book that I reread occasionally to help keep my mind right. It's helped me deal with the darker moments of life.

This post is a good reminder that I should read it again. Thanks Amy!

The little market I stop at in the morning for my eggs and bacon (in a container, thank you, no bread!) seems to be a favorite stop for local and state police alike. I don't intterupt them when they're conversing, but at the check out I'll give them a smile and thank them for keeping us safe. They seem to like that!

Also, when I've been out for breakfast or lunch, and especially when on a vacation, if I see servicemen/women in uniform, as I did when I went to Newport News, VA, a lot of times I'll ask the waitress for their check, and pay it as well as mine. I usually make it out the door before they even know what happened, but that's just my way of thanking them for their service. I'd do more if I had the jing, but you get the idea.

Also, when I've been out for breakfast or lunch, and especially when on a vacation, if I see servicemen/women in uniform, as I did when I went to Newport News, VA, a lot of times I'll ask the waitress for their check, and pay it as well as mine. I usually make it out the door before they even know what happened, but that's just my way of thanking them for their service. I'd do more if I had the jing, but you get the idea.

Posted by: Flynne at June 4, 2013 12:28 PM

It is a nice gesture, and I certainly wouldn't suggest that you not do it, but the military these days is pretty well paid. My husband was a field grade officer, and even though he was a part time soldier, National guard, his job as a technician with the Army guard meant that he worse his uniform to work every day.

During the Iraq war, it got to the point that he would not even stop at the grocery store for fear that some well meaning civilian would try and buy our groceries for us in the checkout line.

It embarrassed him, because as a officer and Civil Engineer he knew that he made more money than the people trying to buy stuff for him.

It would be good to learn to recognize the rank and try and do stuff for the junior enlisted, not the high ranking officers.

To me, it seems that when I am happiest and, more importantly, feel the most meaning for my existence is when I accept myself as is. It is in these blissful moments I can accept that I am not better than others and in that thought finally feel at peace. Ironically, it is when I try to "better myself" that I am not content and, therefore, unhappy without meaning or peace. Strange though . . . no matter how hard I try, I am unable to completely cease wanting to be better. Why is that you suppose?

Woman:
> I told a woman I passed that she looked pretty
She beamed.

Man:
> I told a woman I passed that she looked pretty
She calls 9-1-1...

Seriously, like you said, men are now assumed to be perverts until proven otherwise. I listened to the link yesterday, I have to agree and say it is pretty sad.

This is an example of how a stranger stepped in and did a small kindness for my family. One afternoon I was trying to get the grocery shopping done with my very cranky 2 and 5 year old. It wasn't going well. A grandfatherly gentleman came up to our cart and said to my son, "It is hard being the big brother sometimes isn't it?". My son nodded yes and then the gentlemen said, "Well, I can tell you are great big brother and also a big help to your mom." He then reached into his pocket and handed my son a dollar coin and told him that was to help him remember what an important job it was to have a little sister that was always watching him to see how things were done. I think my son grew two inches with pride and this gesture completely changed the dynamic of the shopping trip and the day. My children were not on their best behavior that afternoon, and this stranger still went out of his way to say something positive. I was very grateful.

"leave the campground better than you found it."

Yes, I and another fellow are always putting away weights left out by others at our gym. It has become sort of a running joke with us. But, I think rather than like most people being ticked off at cleaning up after others we both have the attitude of "well, if I can make something a little better then so be it."

On the other hand, a mutual friend jokingly calls us suckers for cleaning up after others.

@Charles, I've had the same experience - re-stacking the weights, breaking down someone else's setup, getting scoffed at ...

As far as I'm concerned, it's MY gym. I chose it, I pay for it, I spend time in it.

I can't fix the world but I can improve my little space in it.