About a year and a half ago, I was out on a date with my (then)
boyfriend Joe. We were at this bar downtown Chandler, AZ having a wonderful
time—Yummy food, cold beer, lots of laughing… I was loving that giddy feeling
one has when on a date with someone she knows she may just be falling for… It
was a really great evening.
The check came and he grabbed it right away. Aaah my dashing dining companion. Love that
about him. He then motioned for the server to come closer. He quietly and
discreetly pointed to a random young couple a few tables away from ours and said “I’d
like to pay their tab as well. Please don’t tell them who did it. Just say it
was taken care of by ‘someone who wants you to enjoy your night.’”
The server was puzzled, then smiled and went off to transfer
the ticket onto ours.
I was just staring at Joe. Well! This was new. What’s he trying to do here? Be this knight who
swoops in and buys food for the not-very-poor? This was quite the “move.” I
was alarmingly close to rolling my eyes.
He met my gaze head-on and said, “I am not doing this to
impress you.”
Was I that easy to
read?
“Oh. Well. Good. I didn’t think that you were!” I said
indignantly. And not very convincingly. Because clearly, he was.
“Today is the 22nd,” he said.
“Um. Yes. It is.” I replied. Are 22nd‘s Free Food Days sometimes? I wondered.
“Jodi died on December 22nd. I can say it was the
worst day of my life. It was awful. So, I came up with a little something to
make it … better. I can make someone else’s 22nd pretty great. A
free meal at a restaurant, giving to a charity on the 22nd, cleaning
up a playground on the 22nd…. I don’t know. There are a lot of
things I can do to make this 22nd better for a complete
stranger. And I know Jodi would have liked that. She was big into complimenting
people just to make their day brighter. She loved that kind of stuff.” (I’m
paraphrasing here. He probably described this whole ideal a lot better that
night).
So he was Taking Back
the 22nd. This made perfect sense. I mean, we can do nice things
for people any time, but to do it with purpose, coming from such pain… I
totally got that.
I have had opportunities to Take Back the 22nd both on my own and with Joe. It’s not
always buying someone food anonymously at a restaurant. It’s doing something
small and memorable for one person to make their day. With no fanfare, no glory. The reward is the smile you know you brought out for them.Even though you won't get to see it.
The kids have all gotten to be part of this at one time or
another. We just explain to them that they have the power to make somebody’s
day. That’s a huge and wonderful power. And whether it's on the 22nd or not, we should all abuse the hell out of
it.
