Supplied — AlphaI don’t know about you, but I feel like there’s been a perpetual downpour of pessimism lately. Just when I think things are fine, I find myself drowning in a sea of negativity. So it’s refreshing to come up for air every once in a while and be greeted with an overwhelming sense of positivity.
When a man with little money and in need of food walked into Jumbo Donair on 66th street, Maher Tawell, the owner, didn’t shoo him away. Instead, he offered the man a free meal.
Another customer in the shop at the time witnessed this good deed and wrote about it on Facebook. The post went viral, and it’s now been shared over 9,600 times. Additionally, since the post, Jumbo Donair has been busy with customers from all over the city who are coming to support a man who provided a nice gesture.
An act like this may seem so trivial to some, and even though Tawell’s actions were small, he paid it forward in a big way. Unfortunately, not enough people engage in such simple and selfless acts. Instead, negativity spreads like wildfire: people are so quick to judge, they criticize others’ ideas, and they bring people down by encompassing hate rather than love. Since when did it become human nature to be so pessimistic and hurtful?
I can’t help but consider all the negativity in the world. When you turn on the news, you’re more likely to hear about a murder or terrorist attack than see a heartwarming story. When you’re driving in Edmonton, you’re more likely to see people flip you off or honk their horns than toss you a thank you wave or hold back to let you into their lane. When you go on social media, you’re more likely to see strangers pick fights with each other over something so minuscule rather than engage in polite conversation.
Yes, I’m talking about everything from the active Brussels attacks to the passivity and anonymity behind The Gateway’s comments section.
People will always complain regardless of whether or not people want to hear it (no one wants to hear it). But it’s rare to see people acknowledging something good and appreciating something positive. What ever happened to “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all?”
For the record, I’m not saying it’s unacceptable to disagree with someone — you may very well disagree with me right now. And I’m also not encouraging people to be fake and disingenuous.
But I am asking you to take humanity into consideration.
Paying it forward doesn’t have to be an elaborate and expensive ordeal. It can be as small as complimenting someone or paying for someone’s meal. You don’t even have to go out of your way to do something for someone, I’m just asking that you be decent human beings.
I may be one of the few, but I believe in karma. Yes, people probably automatically associate karma with a negative fate, but I’m talking about good karma — the what goes around comes around kind of deal. And yes, it works both ways.
Tawell considered closing Jumbo Donair because business wasn’t good. He didn’t get mad at the world for not coming to his shop nor did he attack people who went to the McDonald’s down the street. Instead, he simply helped someone in need, and now Jumbo Donair has people lined up out the door.
It’s little things like this that people often overlook. So not only does it make me happy to see people like Tawell doing some good in this world, however large or small it may be, it makes me happy to see those 9,600 people on Facebook acknowledging it.
