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My friend Jeanette has an idea, a small idea, to change the world. It's not complicated. It won't end global warming, reduce carbon emissions, change world hunger or keep any animals from going extinct. The goal of the plan is simple. Change the world, one stranger at a time.

Jeanette has a heart bigger than she is. Small in stature, large in love and ideas, she's not a woman to be trifled with. When she gets an idea in her head, it doesn't stay an idea for long. She's not one to keep an idea just for the sake of thinking about it and feeling good for having had it. She sees ideas as the first domino, the domino that starts all the rest of the dominoes falling down, one after another. She sees ideas as engines for action.

So, the idea she had, simple and profound, was simply thus. Do something kind and unexpected for a total stranger. Perhaps this something involved money, but then again, maybe not. Maybe it's just helping someone with their grocery cart. Maybe it's buying someone behind her in line at the coffee shop, their cup of coffee. Maybe, just maybe it's offering her time, her ear, her arms, whatever she has to offer, to a stranger, unexpectedly, for no other reason than she wanted to do something for someone else.

How would we react to something like this if it were offered us? Would we freak out? Would we protest? Would we become suspicious, defensive, on guard? In America, in the 21st Century, we're sure that everyone has an angle, that everyone wants something from us, so, when someone comes at us with something so simple, so profound as a gesture of sheer kindness, it's, well, revolutionary.

Ed was his name. Jeanette bought a cup of coffee for a man named Ed, a man she never met before and may very well never cross paths with again. Ed wasn't sure what to do. He protested at first. He was surprised. He was somewhat defensive. But, finally, he relented, he accepted and he allowed Jeanette to buy his coffee.

All Jeanette asked in return was for Ed to do the same someday, to someone else. To pay it forward, you might say. A simple but powerful request. Imagine, if you would, if we all did something like this, from time to time. Imagine, if we had the courage to reach out and make a difference for someone else, unexpectedly, with no desire for anything in return. Imagine.

Next time you're in a line with someone, stop and think about Jeanette's challenge to us all. What would it cost, in terms of human kindness, to reach out and do something unexpected, to do something nice, for a total stranger? How would that feel? If we all did this, from time to time, how would that change us, how would that change the world we live in? Might we all see a change, a real change in the world, a change made, one person at a time?

Learn more about this author, M.R. Caffery.
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