Reasons Angry Ostriches Kiss

Right now you are saying - "ok, she's finally lost it with the blog titles!" But stay with me, peeps, there's a point!

When the unthinkable happened in Newtown, CT it affected so many people outside that small town in a small or large way. Like after 9/11, many people had the urge to do something, ANYTHING, to make this all mean something. To make some of the pain, the confusion go away. To balance the evil left in it's wake with a saturation of good back into the world.

When Ann Curry of NBC suggested on air that we do 26 acts of kindnes in their memory, a modern movement was born. But really, it was born again. We have been seeing something along these lines on bumper stickers since c.1983. Possibly inspired by a woman named Anne Herbert who says she scribbled "Perform random kindness and senseless acts of beauty" on a placemat in California around that time and it took off in the public psyche from there. Thirty years later, it has become a touchstone for making society a happier, friendlier, more connected place.

Which is why I was amazed when a writer/musician friend referred to a comment I made on Facebook page asking what RAOK stood for? I thought he was kidding. So did the person who's page I commented on. He claimed that his was not an abbreviating family, at which I LMAO and told him he should tell the truth ASAP, IMHO. He began guessing, starting with - you got it - Reasons Angry Ostriches Kiss.

So, this post is for him and for everyone else who's pulse is not on the "newspeak"* of social media. 

The reason angry ostriches kiss, Anthony, is because someone came along and practiced a Random Act Of Kindness that made them forgive and forget. And that is a good thing. Kindness - maybe planned on my end but random for the recipient - is supposed to have just that effect. A brightening of someone's day. 

As you know, I kicked off my challenge with acts of kindness dedicated to the victims of Sandy Hook School including tags, ribbons, names and a bit of an itinerary. But I am still doing them, because they are good to do. it doesn't require money, fancy packaging, pre-planning. It can...but it doesn't have to. They make me feel good. They make the recipient feel good. They make the people around the recipient who witness it feel good. 

My next post will be about some RAOKs that I have performed since the beginning of my challenge, spontaneous and not. Stay tuned...and please share any RAOKs you have done.


*1984 by George Orwell, who, thanks to the invention of social media, wasn't too far off.

Photo credit: lalosleft shoe on 5/10/12, taken at Denver Zoo http://lalosleftshoe.deviantart.com/