Touching story: Johnny the Bagger

What is it that you find most striking whenever you meet someone new?

Are you impressed by how intelligent they are?
Do you laugh at their jokes?
Do you enjoy sharing a common interest together?

For me, whenever I meet someone new, I'm struck when they treat me with kindness and respect, sometimes caring enough to really mean it when they inquire with "how are you?"

I find this sort of love and camaderie touches me most... and that's the feeling I got from this clip. Pregnant women over 40 have an increased risk of getting trisomies, which can lead to miscarriages and Down Syndrome. Down syndrome is the most common genetic cause of mental retardation, usually resulting from Trisomy of chromosome 21. Mental retardation is the combined deficit of IQ and daily functioning... which is why Johnny had a job of bagging groceries at a local supermarket.

However, a low IQ has no impact on the "emotional quotient" aka EQ. People with Down syndrome are often very loving and caring individuals. They may be naive with strangers, but their friendliness is endearing. This is the quality that enabled Johnny to touch people when he started thinking of something he could do to "make memories and motivate customers to come back."

I challenge you with this question:

How often do YOU do something simple to make memories with other people?

Yeah. Me too. Thankfully, it's never too late to start. The last time I did something super thoughtful like this was around Christmas time -- I donated $15 in the name of a bunch of my friends at school and I wrote little notes to each of them on a Christmas card. I outlined a characteristic that they possessed which I admired and thanked them for being a part of my life. Kinda cheesy and kinda difficult because I didn't want to rewrite anything for any of them... but I think they liked it. :)

via A Storied Career