Monday, February 8, 2010

An Act of Kindness


On this blog I quite often refer to my "job" as a member of management for Wal-mart. However, it is usually more in the comical sense. After my days off I reported to work last night only to discover that one of my associates was killed in an accident. After leaving work around one in the morning he stopped to help someone on the side of the road. As the two were changing the stranded person's tire, a car sped by clipping both of them. Regretful both my associate and the other person were killed instantly. As of this morning they still hadn't caught the people who did it.

After nine years in management and supervising a number of people now well into the thousands, this kind of thing never gets easier. Standing in front of my overnight crew and announcing that one of their own wouldn't be reporting to work that night. Listening to the group of unloaders that he spent so much time getting to know talk about their feelings. Even the simple things of seeing his name on our assignment system and having to leave his name unassigned.

As an artist I've always claimed that we are deeply impacted by people around us rather they know it or not. This young man's presence could light up the room. You couldn't walk by him without an attempt for him to make you laugh. He would do anything for anyone who asked, so when they told me how the accident happened it did not surprise me that he had been helping someone even in the end. This artist will never forget him nor will the Wal-mart manager inside of me.