Sometimes - quite often in fact - performing a Random Act of Kindness simply involves making a choice from two options. The right thing to do versus, not exactly the wrong thing, but the easy thing to do. I'm confronted with this sort of choice today. I am sub-editing the scripts that will be read out on air by the newsreaders, and one section in particular is causing me problems - what we call the half-heads, the series of headlines broadcast at the half-past-the-hour juncture. There's a certain skill to writing them - you need to incorporate all the main points of a particular news story in no more than two or three sentences, while also making sure that your words do not conflict with the images on the screen. We have a new journalist writing them today, and she is struggling to write concise, lucid, intelligible scripts. I have two choices here - I can keep quite and simply rewrite the scripts, or I can take the time out to explain to her what she's doing wrong, give her advice on what's needed, and coach her in how to do it correctly. Option a) is the easy one. Option b) will involve effort and time that I'm unwilling to expend. I sigh. I know what I have to do. Option b) it is.
Tomorrow we will be going to the funeral of L's friend Sue. It still seems unreal that she's dead. L's RAK today has been helping (via Facebook and email) Sue's close friends to stay strong on the eve of what will be an incredibly emotional day. How she is managing to stay strong herself, I can only guess.
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