Chris Rosenblum: Acts of kindness can be contagious

One day after work, I found it stuck to my windshield, wedged beneath a wiper in the spot usually reserved for political fliers or takeout menus.

My discovery, though, wasn’t anything as mundane as a pizza coupon. I examined the heart-shaped piece of cardboard snipped from a package. One side presented a photo image of verdant leaves soaking up sunshine.

The flip offered another window into life’s beauty.

“Be the change you wish to see ...” stated the handwritten message scrawled in black marker and quoting Mahatma Gandhi. In smaller, blue print hugging a curved edge was a website address: www.facebook.com/givethegood.

This was certainly mysterious. Who had left it? Cars around me didn’t have one. Was it someone I knew or had I been chosen at random? Was some angel on a low budget sending me a message from the universe? My gaze swept the lot in the deepening twilight. It started to feel a little spooky.

Back home, in the reassuring clutter of my dining room table, I checked out the Facebook address. Suddenly, cryptic became clear.

As I saw, the page was devoted to the “Giving Good community,” a call to “inspiring one another to spread acts of kindness.” My unknown messenger had steered me to posts celebrating generosity from mensches around the world.

Though the page didn’t reveal its creator, it shed light on some remarkable gestures.

One post shared images of a community fridge set up by a Saudi Arabian man. He placed the refrigerated case outside his home, asking his neighbors to donate extra food so that needy people could take what they want without begging.

Another example told the tale of a high school cross country runner in Iowa. He had just won the district championship when he noticed a runner from a rival school had collapsed from exhaustion down the stretch. Rushing to help, the selfless champion helped the other student to his feet and to the line — unwittingly voiding his title for aiding a competitor.

Yet another post relayed a gift to warm bodies and hearts, too, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Some Good Samaritan wrapped parkas around street poles with the message: “I am not lost! If you are stuck out in the cold, please take me to keep warm!”

All of which gave me one more reason — on top of my family, friends and good health — to feel thankful during Thanksgiving week.

Not that there ever was a halcyon, uplifting era in human history, but these days, the news can be particularly depressing. Hate and fear are running strong. France and Mali grieve and seethe, the latest to bleed from Islamic State terrorists and others murdering and intimidating in the name of religious extremism and cultural zealotry.

Within our shores, xenophobia rears its head again, sparked by the Syrian refugees fleeing a brutal civil war. Some of our leaders and neighbors view them as threats rather than desperate families seeking new lives — never mind that refugees already undergo lengthy processing and checks to gain asylum, and that readily-available student visas would be an easier ticket in for our enemies. Will we curtail those?

I imagine that if she could today, the Statue of Liberty would be weeping.

Some have even called for a national registry of Muslims, as though the Constitution were just a list of suggested best practices that have grown outdated.

In this current climate, it was refreshing to read the Giving Good posts and be reminded that empathy and kindness persist. Ignorance, racism and fanaticism still divide us, but enough people care for the well-being of strangers — as we’re fortunate to see locally with our robust safety net of charities — to provide hope for humanity.

So thank you to whoever left that little cardboard heart on my car. If your goal was to inspire me, you succeeded, starting with a sidewalk encounter the other day.

I was walking to work along Allen Street when a man came up to me and asked for spare change. Urban-style panhandling is rare in State College, so I was caught by surprise and slipped into an automatic mode learned years ago in cities. I started to quicken my steps and mumble an apology, then stopped.

He looked for real: worn face, disheveled hair, ragged clothes. His request had been polite. I had no excuse. Then and there, life was presenting an opportunity — not anything grand like Doctors Without Borders or even on par with a fridge full of food for the taking, but a chance to give nonetheless.

I handed him a couple of singles and change, all I had at the time. He thanked me, and we wished each other well. It wasn’t much of a gift really, but I hope it helped him get through his day. I owe him thanks, too.

It felt good.

This story was originally published November 28, 2015 at 4:43 PM with the headline "Chris Rosenblum: Acts of kindness can be contagious."