do what you can, when you can

this came to my attention via social networks. it is a piece on buzzfeed containing several images that will restore some faith in humanity. i looked, and they certainly do that, but some of them do more. some of them are right-place-right-time things, where someone has done something completely selfless in response to a particular one-off event, but several of the pictures show ideas on how people can help someone without doing anything they wouldn't be doing ordinarily. these in particular struck me, and made me think: surely most business who deal with the general public can do something like this? if every business in one town, or even just a few of them, did something like this, te benefits would be immediate and obvious. none of them are difficult to do, in terms of preparation, but their impact could be beautiful.

this next one is a different type of gesture altogether, but one whose ethos i can't help but love:

so what do you think? do you run, or work in a business that could do something like this? would you be prepared to ask local businesses to do the same? would you be prepared to just ask your neighbours round? don't do anything you're not comfortable with, but have a think about ways you can do something similar that which is relevant to you. let's make things better.