Sometimes you realize just how a bit of kindness and a bit of competence can change your life; have a look at my column Sunday for my latest example. As Christmas creeps ever closer, what’s the most recent random act of kindness that changed your life?

I was a victim this week.

I was trying to get my car washed. Sometimes I just go through the Exxon car wash – it’s convenient to my house and easy to use because I can just swipe my gas card to pay for it. But my car was pretty dirty. I probably should have taken it to one of those detailing shops because it was really dirty. So I thought I would take it to that really nice drive-through car wash across the street from the Exxon. At the BP station.

I pulled up to the entrance but the card reader wouldn’t read my BP card. I tried a couple times, then pulled around to the front of the gas station (sighing heavily. Soooo inconvenienced). Inside, I told the cashier that I was trying to get a car wash and it wouldn’t read my card (*flashes BP card around as visual aid*). She says, “We don’t have anything to do with the car wash.” I said, “So you can’t charge my gas card and give me a code?” I mean, that’s how they do it across the street at the Exxon. She says again, “We don’t have anything to do with the car wash.” Fine, I huff. I’ll just go across the street.

Read the rest of this entry »

Just got word that one of Memphis’s nicest guys, Thomas Boggs, died this morning. At 63, Thomas had done more living than most of us ever will, from his early rocker days with the Box Tops to his restaurant dynasty, which now includes the seven Huey’s locations, as well as partnerships in Folk’s Folly, Tsunami and the Half Shell. But the thing I’ll remember best about Thomas is how friendly and welcoming he was to a newbie Memphian back in the early 1990s, always willing to tell me who was connected to whom, how to reach them, and later, ready with a wave and a smile for my son whenever he saw us. I also admire him for sharing the wealth with his daughters, pictured here with him at Huey’s in a 2006 photo — (from left) Ashley Williams, Samantha Dean, and Lauren McHugh.

Godspeed, Thomas. We’ll miss you like hell.

Everything is different in my office today. This week we start out with a new team, because Friday was the last day for one of our long-time employees.

It’s easy to picture Alayna as the glue that held us all together. It’s because she has a personality that bridges the gaps of stress, ego and impatience. Alayna is eager to please, quick to laugh, and reminded us 40-somethings not to take ourselves too seriously.

It was time to let her go. Pushed out of the nest in an attempt to teach her to fly on her own. But when we told her that she would be missed, we really meant it. It’s just not the same around here without her.

Which makes me wonder: what do I contribute to the group dynamics? Am I working for the good of the team or for my own personal success? Am I a giver or a taker? A laugher or a sulker?

Do you think you bring out the best in others? What attributes do you have that make people glad you are part of their team?

When Rosie Murrell first came through the doors at the Hope & Healing Center, operated  by the Church Health Center, she had a specific goal in mind: lose enough weight to qualify for bariatric surgery. Rosie had been seriously overweight her whole life, at one point weighing 437 pounds.
She wanted that surgery any way she could get it, so much so that the fact that she had been diabetic for 20 years, and had eventually increased her insulin intake to over 100 units, wasn’t even her biggest concern. She also had uncontrolled high blood pressure and was working on degenerative joint disease.
“My doctor was pushing exercise, and told me he wouldn’t do the surgery if there was more than a 50 percent chance I’d die on the table,” Rosie said. She’d begun to lose weight before she began at Hope & Healing, though the starvation diet she’d worked out wasn’t really working.
“When (the wellness counselor) told me I’d have to increase my calories” to keep losing weight, Rosie said, “I cried and cried.” Read the rest of this entry »