I awoke one recent morning to a shared message on FaceBook.
My grandmother is passing soon with cancer. I visited her the other day and she was telling me about how she really wanted soup, but not hospital soup because she said it tasted “awful” she went on about how she really would like some clam chowder from Panera. Unfortunately Panera only sells clam chowder on Friday. I called the manager Sue and told them the situation. I wasn’t looking for anything special just a bowl of clam chowder. Without hesitation she said absolutely she would make her some clam chowder. When i went to pick it up they wound up giving me a box of cookies as well. It’s not that big of a deal to most, but to my grandma it meant a lot. I really want to thank Sue and the rest of the staff from Panera in Nashua, NH just for making my grandmother happy. Thank you so much!
~ Brandon Cook, Wilton NH
Brandon Cook and his Grandma
Within a few hours this FB post had 77,590 Likes and 3,753 Comments.
I wish to offer condolences to Mr. Cook at this sad time. I don’t know him, nor do I recall which of my friends shared his post. I was struck, however, with how this post made me feel.
Every day here on Earth, people arrive and people depart. With a current population of seven billion, there’s no way any of us can know all of the people making these transitions. Only births and deaths for those close to us elicit our joy and sorrow.
Panera Breadbowl
And with so many billion people busily going about their daily survival, it’s difficult to even notice small acts of kindness. I sometimes wonder if we think that offering or performing a small act of kindness is even worth the bother. There are so many a**holes cutting us off in traffic, so many people with a win-lose mentality, so many people with a fuck-everyone-who-isn’t-me attitude, what difference could a smile make? What difference could pausing to hold a door possibly mean to someone? How much would it mean to someone to cook up a bowl of clam chowder, especially on a day when it wasn’t “part of your job?”
But a woman named Sue, at a Panera Bakery in Nashua, New Hampshire, took a few moments to listen to a stranger. She could have said, “This isn’t what we do,” or “We only serve that on Friday,” or thought to herself, “My back hurts, my kids have been brats and other customers this morning have been jerks, why should I bother?” Instead she went out of her normal routine and helped a stranger.
And look how far that simple act traveled. First and obviously, she comforted a dying woman. She also made it possible for a man to return what was probably a lifetime of love kindness from his grandmother. She made it possible for him to comfort her and show her how much he loved her. And within a few weeks of him sharing this story on FaceBook, Sue’s act of kindness has now touched over 750-thousand of us, touched the place within our hearts that restores faith in the kindness of humanity.
And look how much goodwill a bowl of clam chowder garnered for Panera. Since my daughter is a manager of one of their stores in Southern California, I was already a fan of the chain. But what did this quick and quiet act of kindness do for customer loyalty or to generate new customers for Panera? I don’t think Sue even thought of that. I think she simply took time to hear the plight of a stranger and chose to be kind. Will she ever realize the extent of her act? I don’t think so. It touched my heart clear across the country—and more than 750-thousand others across the country—but she’ll undoubtedly never know. I think the most simple and pure acts of kindness ripple the farthest into our sea of humanity. And I offer Sue’s bowl of chowder as an example.
