The power of one

This morning I got in to work, sat down, waited and listened. Every few minutes I'd hear the tearing open of an envelope and the dropping of a coin. And then silence. Today, everyone in Communication Services at Good Wooden Leg was the recipient of one loonie and a letter explaining how they could use that loonie to take a small action but make a big change. It's World Kindness Week and so once again I wanted to honour it in a secret mission way.

Amara was the first to knock on my cube.

"Were you responsible for some random kindness this morning?" she asked.

I smiled and worded my response carefully. "I can honestly say no, I was not responsible for random kindness this morning."

Truthfully, I had help, and truthfully, I was not the one in charge of distributing the unmarked envelopes.

There was not the same fanfare as there was last year with the cupcakes. I'm not really sure what people thought of the idea this time. A few approached me and returned their coins, asking me to make a donation to a charity for them. Amara promised me she would do her best to find a way to put the loonie to good use. In the end, it doesn't really matter what people decide to do with the extra buck--buy a coffee for themselves, buy one for a friend, flip it to a guy on the street, or save it for emergency bus fare--the point was that we always wish we had more so we could do more, but there is so much you can do even with just a dollar. I forgot my list at work, so I'll try to list from memory some ideas we came up with:

• Buy a song on iTunes for yourself or a friend
• Find a cause. Make a poster. Photocopy it 10 times. Post.
• Buy a reusable shopping bag. Keep plastic bags out of the landfills.
• Call two friends (pay phones in MB cost $.50 per local call)
• Build a school with Jackie Chan for a dollar