Newsgroups: alt.suicide.holiday
Subject: Re: Senseless
From: emiddlec@mora.gac.edu (Eric Middlecamp)
Date: 12 Nov 92 22:48:33 -0600

In article <1dteugINNoov@bigboote.WPI.EDU>  writes:
>I've been meaning to do this....
>
>        Practice Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty
>
>>Judy Foreman spotted the same phrase spray-painted on a warehouse wall a
>>hundred miles from her home.  When it stayed on her mind for days, she
>>gave up and drove all the way back to copy it down.  "I thought it was
>
>Huh? If it stuck in her mind why'd she have to go back?

She forgot the exact words.

>>"Here's the idea," Herbert says.  "Anything you think there should be
>>more of, do it randomly."
>
>Hmm... Great for the unbalanced. "Gee, more death's would be cool!" Personally
>I feel there should be more civil disobediance.

You can do it cheerfully..

>>Her own fantasies include: (1) breaking into depressing-looking schools
>>to paint the classrooms, 
>
>Oh, nice... Yeah, lets break in. Vandalize the place. I bet the school would
>end up paying to have it repainted. Damn good idea. Yahright. 
>
>>(2) leaving hot meals on kitchen tables in the poor parts of town, 
>
>This is just wonderful. Violate the sancity of their homes. Take away that one
>bit of security. Let them know they have no privacy. Make sure they know there
>are others who pity them, great for the pride. It is important to be able to
>feel secure in your residence. Without that it is just a place to crash, not a
>home at all.
>
>>(3) slipping money into a proud old woman's purse.
>
>And how do you know she needs it? I have elderly relatives who drive beat up
>cars and were old clothes, etc. And they have plenty of money. They just choose
>not to use it.
>
>>of letters and business cards.  And as it spreads, so does a vision of
>>guerrilla goodness.
>
>Why not organized kindness? A focussed effort can do more good than 
>disorganized random events.

It is organized.. in a holistic sort of way..

>>mops and tulip bulbs might descend on a rundown house and clean it from
>>top to bottom while the frail elderly owners look on, dazed and smiling.
>
>Or they might get out the old shot gun and tell 'em to leave. Listen, if you
>want to do something like that go and offer to do so. Just don't show up. I
>know my grandmother would flip, she doesn't like strangers at her house. She
>is nervous in general.

Well, pick a more destitute setting. Paint someone's cardboard box. Paint them.

>>It's positive anarchy, disorder, a sweet disturbance.  A woman in Boston
>>writes "Merry Christmas!" to the tellers on the back of her checks.  A
>
>Thanks cool. Unless the teller doesn't do the xmas thing. Howe about Happy
>Holidays?
>
>>man in St. Louis, whose car has just been rear-ended by a young woman,
>>waves her away, saying, "It's a scratch.  Don't worry."
>
>Yeah so? If it was just a scratch than that was probably easier than dealing
>with insurance.

Because it really wasn't a scratch.

>>Senseless acts of beauty spread:  A man plants daffodils along the
>>roadway, his shirt billowing in the breeze from passing cars.  In
>
>To remain until the roadcrews mow them down with the grass...

Well.. Maybe they will have a nicer day for it.

>>likewise, you can't commit a random act of kindness without feeling as
>>if your own troubles have been lightened if only because the world has
>>become a slightly better place.
>
>Actually most of those things would make me feel like a fool.

You need to find a more appropriate brand of kindness- something uncomplicated like giving money.

>>And you can't be a recipient without feeling a shock, a pleasant jolt.
>
>Want to bet? I know plenty of people would at least be annoyed.

They deserve to be annoyed, then. :)

>>later?  Wave someone on in the intersection?  Smile at a tired clerk?
>
>I do that anyway...

Great! 
Newsgroups: alt.suicide.holiday