Random Acts

Now's the chance. There's still a parking space somewhere in town, a cashier facing less than an angry mob, an unspoken-for nanosecond on one day of the month. We're safely on the other side of the year from all that boils over.

What better time for Random Acts of Kindness Week? Starting Monday, it asks us all to commit such improbable acts as stopping for pedestrians, listening to others, greeting people with a smile, complimenting a coworker, reporting helpful service to a manager, or signing up to serve the community.

Intoxicated with nostalgia, perhaps, a California professor came up with the idea as an antidote to random acts of violence in uncivil and uncivilized times. The notion is to encourage adults to be considerate and to become role models for others, including the young.

The Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, represented here by Bob Tulp of Amagansett, checks in on old people who are homebound and also sends seniors to help out at facilities from soup kitchens to school libraries. It is well acquainted with acts of kindness. But this week it plans to log them - and then publicize them to encourage more of the same and "prove that kindness is indeed contagious."

An anachronistic throwback? Or a habit worth cultivating 52 weeks of the year? You be the judge.