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I Hope To Be That Guy
Sponsor: @crisdental Family Dentistry & Denture Center
Something unbelievable is happening to Kathy and me. The longer we live in Townsend Montana the more we are discovering something called kindness.
I won’t speak for my wife, after 40 years together I’ve learned that’s a direct route to a fight, but for me I see a lack of natural generosity on my part.
Oh, I help people but what I see here, in this small farming community, is a purity underlying each act. The motivation is simply doing the right thing, not expecting anything back.
The video up top is just one example. Our driveway was covered in snow drifts. We weren’t stuck but as it starts to thaw (if that ever happens) and then freeze again, our driveway would have become a nightmare.
So I’m in my office yesterday and hear a noise outside. I look and here is a stranger on a four wheeler with a blade on the front removing the snow from my driveway. I don’t know this man, not even sure where he came from until I walk outside and ask. (watch video).
He saw my post on social media talking about Kathy and me shoveling our driveway by hand and he knew what he had to do.
The story gets even more interesting.
A few minutes later I’m calling someone from the Lions club about doing a show on the upcoming ice fishing derby (you guys are going to love that video) and the woman on the phone turns out to be my neighbor and the husband of Joe the guy on the quad scraping my snow at that very moment.
Oh, there’s more.
Another person(Jeannie) in town follows me and heard I was looking for some office space in Townsend. I need a place to go and I need to be in town so I can meet my neighbors. She has a huge space in a beautiful building and is giving us a great deal to get us in town. She told me to park on the street so people learn my habits and soon they’ll be stopping in and in no time they’ll figure me out.
I want be that kind of man. The type who does the right thing because it’s the right thing. Joe didn’t ask my permission to help me. He didn’t make me sign a waver in case something happened or someone got hurt. He just knew I needed help, more than I knew, and helped.
Same with Jeannie. She understands how a small town works and is teaching us.
In our old life there would be manual or a book or a three phased class to teach us “The Art of Living in Rural America.” But in rural America you learn by watching, listening and through a pure kindness ingrained in the people who live here, in the people who will teach you.
I have to smile when I remember the “Kindness” posters and yard signs people used to put up back in my former home state. I guess it was a reminder or for some a signal. Here you’d never see a sign like that kindness is not something you put on or remind people to be, you just are.
This morning Kathy and I hugged each other as we got a nudging from God. Not the answer but clarification as to why we are here. He’s going to teach us the art of kindness in it’s most raw, real and remarkable form.
