The year was 1998 – I was touched by a RAK. I even wrote about it in Kaleidoscope magazine. It was in the early days of the Internet when we didn’t have to worry about Spam or phishing. Not many people were on the Internet back then. Since I had an AOL account, the only people I connected with were on AOL.
One day on April 9th I received an email from a stranger. Which was quite rare in those days. It simply said, “You don’t know me. I want to wish you a Happy Birthday. You’ve been hit by a RAK… “Random Act of Kindness.”
The email threw me. Since he was also on AOL, it wasn’t hard to figure out how he got my email address. I emailed him back to thank him. He said that’s what he does…thinks of various ways to perform random acts of kindness.
The RAK has now caught on. It can be found in “Acts of Random Kindness,” “Pay It Forward,” “Shine and Be Kind,” the list can go on. The bottom line is…the days of selflessness are over. Or at least dormant for a while…until we come out of these tough economic times.
If you’ve never been touched by a RAK, why not touch someone first. The law of reciprocity states that it will surely come back to you.
Try it. Reach out and touch someone with a RAK. You’ll never forget or regret it.