April 22, 2008
Truesday: Random Serendipity
*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors
Some friends of mine were sitting at the Vietnamese sandwich stand on South Lamar, just south of Oltorf. You know the one, between the Office Depot and that tire shop that always blinds the shit out of me with thousand spoke rims shined to NASA specifications, all tethered together and splayed out near the bus stop to really piss off those who can’t afford to do anything but ride the Metro downtown. Across from where that other tire shop used to be, where they had another thousand-spoke rim chained to their street sign, but the rim was about three feet in diameter. Like it was designed for a pimp's dumptruck or something. Shit was INSANE.
Anyhow, my friends were there at that sandwich stand, having sandwiches in their mouths and hands, when a modestly-dressed, late-thirties woman walked up and handed everyone present a blank envelope. She then walked over to a waiting SUV, jumped up into the passenger seat and they drove off at a normal pace, with a wave.
Everyone at the sandwich-stand stood with silent curiosity, cautiously eyeing their envelopes.
Then they each opened them to find $100 cash, and a note saying something along the lines of “every day is your lucky day”.
No shit?
No shit.
The woman said nothing as she did this. And the note made no request to “pay it forward” or any other odd requirements. It was a simple statement of positive spirit. Not quite like the scene in Fight Club where Tyler puts the gun in the quickie-mart guy’s mouth and demands that he go become a veterinarian and make something better out of his current counter-jockey self. No such strings attached. Just cash and a light-hearted, hand-written note.
Shit seems pretty sincere to me. And as long as there’s no anthrax or airborne herpes on that cash, I find the whole situation beautifully absurd. The kind of existential absurdity that movies are made to embody. The kind of inspirational random-act-of-kindness (though one could easily argue that handing out cash to random street-strangers isn’t necessarily “kind” if that cash is used to buy low-grade heroin or landmines for distribution at local playgrounds) which provides hope for the pragmatically hopeless.
Anyone else witness this, or something like it?
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amazing. do you think oprah was involved?
It's quite possible Oprah was involved; it did involve giving money away to people who could afford to buy their own food.
Anyone have any sightings of this person giving an envelope to a homeless person or someone who may not have been shopping or dining out?
Charity is wasted on the poor.
The inexplicable human need to reward poor decision-making is why we have the G.I. Bill.
LoudMouth, are you behind this?
The Comrads of the Great Eastern Bloc of Austin gave you this stipend as a harbinger of our great socialist movement. See what a state-owned economy can provide our people. Join our movement today!
Loudmouth is wondering where his envelope is.
Whoah. The pessimist in me says she killed herself shortly thereafter. Or, was giving away her husband's cash prior to a divorce. Or, denounced all material possessions and joined a cult, err, I mean religious order.
So many storylines can be built off applying some simple pessimism here! It's like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure.
Oprah would've filmed it and made sure someone got a book deal at the end.