DRIVING THOUGHTS Pinky Concha Colmenares Today is a good day to start a promise – to do at least one act of random kindness. It can be an act of generosity, like paying for the purchase of a poor old person in a drug store. It can be an act to give joy, like buying a can of ice cream for a family with active kids standing in line at the supermarket checkout counter. It can be an act to offer your time and skill to fix a neighbor’s broken appliance. There are so many acts of kindness that one can give to a family member, a friend, or a neighbor. But to me, the best act of random kindness is one that you extend to a stranger, someone who will not have a chance to repay you. That may be hard to do for many people who expect some form of gratitude in the future. But that is the ideal gesture of kindness— to give without expecting anything in return. I am writing this column today because something magical happens to most everyone on Christmas Eve. Observe how people are more courteous on the road, or more patient while waiting in line at the supermarket checkout counter. Observe how the office grouch smiles and looks you in the eye, instead of the computer screen. Tonight, amid the pandemic but under less restrictions, many families will be together to celebrate Christmas Eve. Many will sit down around the table for Christmas dinner. But many will not even have a table because their houses and crops were destroyed by Typhoon Odette which made landfall nine times last week before it exited the Philippine Area of Responsibility. They are the people who need many acts of kindness now. My inspiration to do acts of kindness comes from a friend who many years ago, sent his driver to a stranger’s house deep in an area of informal settlers to answer a letter sent to Santa Claus. At that time, Manila Bulletin had a “Dear Santa” column in the kids’ section which I was editing. We received a letter from a single mother of three boys who in desperation, said she was writing to Santa to ask for a decent meal for Christmas Eve, and a pair of pants for her eldest son who was working as a waiter. She drew a map to her house from the Sumulong Highway, confident that Santa Claus would reply to her letter. My friend was then living somewhere in Antipolo and passed that way every day. I gave him the letter and he put it in his pocket. I did not ask if he was going to do something about it. A month later, I received a letter from the same woman named Gloria. She thanked me for sending “Santa Claus” to her house on New Year’s Eve, but said she did not mind that he was late for Christmas Eve. She said a man in polo barong went to her house in the afternoon of Dec. 31 and delivered packs of food, a pair of pants for her son, and “an envelope with cash.” The envelope and the food packs did not even have the sender’s name. In her letter, she said she now believes that Santa Claus is real! I was touched that my friend had sent his driver to deliver what the woman had asked from Santa Claus. He never told me, and when I thanked him, he just smiled and refused to elaborate what and how much cash he sent. If you have not done anything for a stranger before, today is a good day to start.