26 Acts of Kindness - Day 23

Today's Act of Kindness pays tribute to Benjamin Wheeler, age 6. Ben lived his six short years at full speed. He was bursting with enthusiasm and energy and ran headlong into everything he did. Ben loved to play soccer and would often still be running the field after practice had finished. He had been taking swimming lessons and was excited about his newfound ability. 

Ben loved lighthouses, bacon and eggs and the Beatles. Ben was born in Queens and it seems part of that heritage never left him. He loved to ride the train in New York. He didn't care about museums or concert halls - young Ben always wanted to ride the subway when they went to the city to visit.

Ben idolized his big brother, Nate. Their parents say both boys had enough energy to fill the house with the sounds of four children. Ben had recently told his mother that, while he still wanted to be an architect when he grew up, he also wanted to be a paleontologist, because that's what Nate wanted to do, and he wanted to do everything with his brother.

Ben was born into a musical family. Both of his parents are in music and theatre, and Ben had a pitch-perfect voice and was learning to play the piano. At a recent recital his grandfather recalled how he bolted out of his seat and ran to the piano, he held still just long enough to play his piece, and dashed back to his seat. That was just Ben, always in a rush - there was simply too much life to live. His grandfather used to say that Ben would go places, he would make a difference in the world. His mother said that she never imagined that the difference he would make in the world would be because of his death.

His mother, who writes and sings children's songs, wrote this lullaby - A Star in the Sky for her sons. It was played at little Ben's funeral, and by the time the last note hung in the air there wasn't a dry eye in the church. And just recently twenty-six new stars were added to Newtown, as a past resident donated six larger copper stars and twenty smaller ones to adorn the roof of the Newtown Firehouse, as a permanent reminder of the brilliant lights that went out all too soon.

For our Act of Kindness today I decided to combine several of the passions in young Ben's life, since he was so full of passion. I found a model kit for a metal lighthouse (I figured since Ben wanted to be an architect and loved lighthouses he would have been fascinated by it) and a Beatles t-shirt. 

My plan was to hop on the Max light rail train (Portland's version of the subway) and give the items to two random people. However, I was having a bad MS night and wasn't feeling very good, so I sent my husband to act as the messenger again, since he's found he loves participating in these acts as much as he can.

He reported back when he got home: He got on the train and began looking for people that might like the items he had. He found a man quickly who seemed like he might be a Beatles fan. My husband approached him and asked if he was. The man replied, "Yeah," while looking hesitant, like he was afraid my husband was trying to sell him something. My hubby handed him the shirt and explained we were doing an Act of Kindness in honor of Benjamin Wheeler and this was for him. The man's eyes lit up, a huge grin appeared on his face, said what an awesome thing to do, he thanked my husband and promised he would pay it forward. My husband couldn't find anyone who seemed to fit the lighthouse so he left it on the seat, and hopefully someone who it will be perfect for will find it.

I asked him to do one other thing when he got off the train. The train tickets are always good for two hours, and since all he did was ride one stop up and one stop back, there was still over an hour and a half left on the ticket. I asked him to just tape the ticket to the ticket machine so the next person who came up to buy a ticket could use it. Well, my husband didn't seem to think that was good enough for Ben. He came home with a picture of the the Acts of Kindness card and the train pass he taped to the ticket machine... it was a pass for a whole week. I have no words. 

Ben, thank you for sharing your passion for life, and may we all learn to live life at full force.

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” ― John Lennon