ARE YOU SHOWIING KINDNESS DURING YOUR TRAVELS?

Somewhere along the travel destinations people always show kindness. My question is are we showing kindness to others when traveling?

Transcript

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Well, good morning. It is June the twenty-second, two thousand twenty-six, and from the Halle Caffeinated Studio, this is according to Willie B and I will Rice will be your host for the next let's call it 30 minutes. Who's counting? So last week we talked about random acts of kindness that people do uh on your travels that are very memorable for years to come. Because you remember, as I said, people remember how you make them feel. And I started doing a self-reflection. I thought, what have I done in my travels to make someone feel appreciated, someone to feel like they mattered? How have I gone out of my way to make others feel the same importance that they have made me feel? And the more I thought about it, I thought, you know, this would actually be a good episode because it's a reflection episode for all of us. And so I wanted to take this opportunity and just do a follow-up on last week, and we're gonna talk about tonight what have you done to make a difference. You know, when people talk about travel, they usually talk about destinations, the beaches, mountains, cruise ships, famous landmarks, food, food, uh, pictures, memories, and don't get me wrong, those things matter. But the older I get, the more I realize that the things I remember most often are not places at all, they are people, and it's the people that I will probably never see again when we travel, we become temporary characters in someone else's story, and I I I really love that statement to think of ourselves as a temporary character in someone else's story, but is it really temporary if we leave a lasting impression and they remember that from years to come? One of the things that people always said about my mom was that if you ever met her one time, even if you didn't know her, if you met her one time, you would always remember her because she just had a way of making you feel important, and she would be remembered because of the way they made her, the way she made them feel. And I thought I thought that was uh uh very remarkable to say about someone. So, you know, we have to remember that whether it's a a waitress or waiter, taxi driver, housekeeper, a hotel, flight attendants, family sitting next to us, a stranger who looks lost, someone that's having a bad day, someone that's celebrating a great day, and for a few moments our paths cross. I started asking myself a question not where have I traveled, not what have I seen, and not what I've eaten, but this what difference have I made? Did someone smile because I crossed their path? Did someone's day get easier? Did someone feel appreciated or did someone feel seen? So the first thing I'll tell you, let me tell you about a time where I was on a flight uh for work, and I'll never forget it. I I do not I've told y'all before, I do not fit in the center seat of an airplane. I I it's just physically impossible. It's it's I have broad shoulders, and so I it it's like trying to put a square peg in a round hole, it just doesn't fit. And so my joke is I always have to have either a window seat or an aisle seat to spill out in, and it's not that I'm a huge guy, I'm just very broad in the shoulders, so I just don't fit in that middle seat. So I remember that I had booked my flight as always and booked it early to make sure that I had gotten either an aisle seat or a window seat, and it was about a three-hour flight. And I got on the plane, and of course it was southwest, so I'm I'm all settled in, I'm ready to go, I'm ready to get this trip over with, ready to get things done, get back home, and enjoy a weekend. And I hear a commotion behind me, and the lady sounds very distressed, and she's talking to the flight attendant, and the flight attendant told her, So, ma'am, the flight is full. I will ask around to see if anybody wants to switch with you. She said, But you know, and so finally I caught on to what was going on. It was a family, a husband, a wife, and a child, and they were separated in their seats. And so I said, Well, I don't mind switching. I didn't think about it before I just suggested because someone's in in distress and someone needs help, so I stepped up. The seat that I got put in, you guessed it, was a middle seat. So I paid for that dearly for the next three hours, but you know what? It was okay. The child was really distraught because uh, you know, she was gonna be separated from her family. And I said, you know, no, we're not having that. I said, I will I will switch. And the flight attendant told me, he said, it's it's a middle seat, two rows behind you. And I was like, Oh, a middle seat. I said, Okay, not a problem. I I I can handle it, it's only three hours, it was the longest three hours of my life. I'm not gonna lie. Um, but you know, uh, was now was that life changing? Probably not, but maybe it changed that moment, and sometimes it's the moments that matter. Um the funny thing about kindness is that it rarely shows up on an itinerary, nobody plans for it, you don't buy tickets for it, you don't even make reservations for it, it just happens when you're paying attention. Like this next time. One of the things that we always loved about traveling to Jamaica was if you have ever stayed at a couple's resort, and I tell you again, no, I I'm not they're not a sponsor, they just really impress me with their business model, and I know the I know the owner, so I I I don't mind plugging them because uh they are above and beyond any resort I've ever stayed at, but they do not allow tipping of any kind, and it's my understanding and always has been that they take good care of their staff, so they do not allow tipping. Now, can you tip under the table and little cash, little switch hands here and there? Absolutely. But years ago, I found out that one of the biggest ways, and it's actually on the couples' website, the couples resorts, it's actually on their website. They say we don't allow tipping, but if you would like to help the people of Jamaica, what you can do is bring school supplies. This is something that is a premium for them. You could literally buy $50 worth of school supplies, throw them in your luggage, and you would think when you hand them out, you would think that you had literally handed somebody a new car. It was the most unrealistic thing I had ever witnessed in my life, and I've never forgotten it until this day. And so we've always taken school supplies, and then we've over the years we found out that you know, also if you have any kind of sports memorabilia, t-shirts, hats, whatever, uh, and it could even be a freebies. Maybe you go to a stadium and they're handing out free hats or free the the t-shirt. It doesn't matter. This is something that's a luxury for them, and you will never, you can never imagine the amount of kindness that is returned in that favor. It's it's just absolutely amazing. It it'll it'll actually melt your heart and break your heart at the same time. I I kid you not. You know, I've I've always uh when we travel somewhere, I always try to tip extra on either a shuttle driver or a if it's a local cab driver somewhere, because they're more than just a cab, they're more than point A to point B. They're going to tell you things that hey, you want to avoid this, hey, uh, don't miss this. Hey, you got to go see this. Uh, how long are you here for? And they by the time you make a 20 to 30 minute ride in their car, you know so much about them, and they know a lot about you, and it's like you made this connection. And so a little extra tip goes a long way with them because it just shows look, this was not a car ride, this was somebody stepping up. Yes, you're being uh compensated for it, but nevertheless, to me, if if I'm just taking a ride to the airport, then then I'll still tip, but it's just a normal amount. But if I'm traveling somewhere and I'm in a car or a shuttle van with a local uh driver, and they're telling me all these things that you can't find out on the internet. Look, that that is going above and beyond. And I remember there was uh a couple years ago, the group of us that went into town on one of couple uh shopping shuttles. Uh we tipped that guy, we grouped together and we tipped him very well. And the man broke down in tears because what we gave him was basically two months' salary in Jamaica, and it was going to make a huge difference in his life, and it and but for us as a group, it wasn't that big of a deal, and that's the thing you have to remember is sometimes the smallest act of kindness can have the biggest effect on someone. You know, when I started the podcast uh Real Slot Talk, uh one of the things that I started doing a few months ago was giving out good luck ducks, and I give them to basically anybody in the casino, whether they're an employee or whether it's just someone in their gambling or whatever the case may be, and it always puts a smile on someone's face. And I actually had a guest on on my show this week that she was doing the same thing in another casino four hours away. And her statement was look, it's something just so simple. But if you can make somebody smile in a day, why would you not do it? And I thought, man, that's that's huge. Uh, so it's turned into this community thing where we're building this community around these silly little ducks, but it's just a random act of kindness that wasn't planned for, wasn't it? It's just something that somebody doesn't expect. And sometimes when we do random acts of kindness that people don't expect, it really sticks out, and it's something that is remembered. I can see somebody that uh maybe I've done something like this before it's like, oh, I remember you did this, or you know, and it just they rem they don't remember what it was, they just remember how it made them feel. You know, I never dreamed that the culinary highway restaurant videos I do, I never dreamed the kind of impact that they would have when we're traveling. Now, locally, it's just doing a restaurant review and filming it and doing the YouTube video, etc. But I've learned as we traveled, it's like when we traveled all through Boston and Canada last year, and I filmed some of the most remote little cafes and stuff in the middle of nowhere, and I I received some of the nicest letters and notes from these people, and they're like, Look, we've never had anybody go above and beyond for us. We're just this little small cafe just trying to make a living, trying to do things the right way, and you basically put us on the map, and it it's just for someone to have taken the time it took you to do this for nothing in return. That's an act of kindness that we haven't seen. And uh, it's letters that I get like that that make it all worthwhile. There's no amount of money that they could ever pay me for doing a video that would give me that same that same feeling. Uh, sometimes it's just about making somebody smile, and yeah, you know, and you guys know from some of my podcasts that I don't mind being the butt of a joke, it does not bother me. Uh, last year when we ate at Intecomaria, one of the funniest things was Nona Maria. Uh, we had this banter going back and forth, and I told her, I said, you know what? This food is so good, I'm going to apply for a job here. I'm not going home. I'm gonna stay here in New York and I'm going to work at Innotech Maria. And she said, I'll go get you a job education. She said, All you need is an apron. I said, Well, I don't have an apron, and she said, Well, you can wear mine now. Let's think about this for a minute. I'm only uh about five, five and a half and and a and some change. I'll take all I can get. But here's this little Italian grandma, and she took off her kitchen apron and attempted to put it on me. I had to bend over because I mean it's like she was trying to put something up on top shelf, and she put this apron on me, and let's just say just the looks of the apron was ridiculous as it was, and I turned around and I just held my hands up like in grand gesture, and the restaurant was packed, and the entire restaurant just went crazy and laughed. And it you so it was bringing a smile to them now. The owner Joe, if you remember him from the movie, he was back behind the counter and he put his hands on his hips and just shook his head in disdain. Like, what are you doing to my staff? But it's you know, it's it's just random acts of silliness sometimes, it's not about giving somebody something, it's not about uh doing anything uh monetary, it's just making someone smile, making someone because you never know when you meet people, and this has been said many, many times, you never know what people are going through when you meet them. Every person that you walk past on a sidewalk, they're going through something, and that someone may be you as well, you may be going through something. So, if nothing more than a smile, I mean, a smile is one of the most contagious things there is. So just glancing up and looking someone in the eye and just smiling, sometimes that alone can really brighten someone's day and they don't forget it. You think, I you know, just walking down the sidewalk and uh I just smiled. Okay, but if that person's having because I know for a fact that I've been walking down a sidewalk and and just having a miserable day, and then someone looks up and they just smile like it's almost as if they understand everything that I'm going through for that moment as we pass in just brief seconds. And that's the part of traveling that is really important to me, and I don't really think I ever had placed much emphasis on it until I started doing these podcasts and researching, and then just thinking to myself, I never I never realized how important that was. I I never realized how important that it stood out to me that someone was kind to me. I mean, sure, I remember it and I I was I was grateful, but I never really, as they say in the South, I never put two and two together. And sometimes we can't. Sometimes we put two and two together and it comes up to six. But you know, it's it's just really important that we remember that we're all living on the same rock. And it matters to make sure that we make each other feel heard and that we make each other feel as if there's somebody out there, even if it's for a brief second, there's somebody out there that cares. So I I remember one other one that I'll I'll tell you about, and you know, it's it's kind of a silly thing, but I have been in foreign countries, especially in France. I don't know why. I well, I do know why. Uh if you've ever been to France and read the road signs, you'll totally understand. But I have been to France and struggling with directions on my own, but then a few a short time later, I find myself helping some other stranger with directions. And it it's it's kind of comical sometimes because I'm I'm like, I don't even know where I am, and yet I'm helping someone get to where they need to go. And and that that sometimes is uh something that we really need to take at heart because when people are traveling, especially if we're in a uh foreign country or an area that we're not familiar with, uh any any kind of help at all, even if it's just you know, I I I honestly don't know, but uh I do know that I talked to this person right over here, and they were very kind and spoke a lot of English and was able to help me. Um and it's those it's It's those times that we really need to remember that, man, uh, you know, I I could have really helped somebody out that day and and never even thought about it. And I could have become that character in someone else's story that they go home and they're saying, you know, man, I was just struggling. I couldn't, you know, and this guy is he he didn't really have a he didn't really have a clue either. But at least he helped point me in the right direction, and I was able to get uh to get things going in the right direction. So just always remember that. Just remember that we're all on the same rock, and we we've got to help one another as much as we can. I think we've convinced ourselves that making a difference requires something huge. It's starting a foundation, it's donating thousands of dollars and changing the world. Maybe, but maybe changing somebody's day is enough. Maybe making one person smile matters more than we will ever realize. So the older I get, the less impressed I am by things, and the more I'm impressed by people. I've stood in beautiful places, I've eaten incredible meals, and I've seen things I never imagined I'd see. But when I sit quietly and think about my travels, I don't always remember the buildings, but I do always remember the people. So here's my challenge to you. The next time you travel, don't just ask yourself what you're going to see. Ask yourself who you're going to help. Who can you encourage? Who can you thank? Who can you surprise with a random act of kindness? Who can you leave better than you found them? Because someday the photos will fade, the souvenirs will collect dust, the restaurants will close, the attractions will change, but somewhere out there a stranger may still remember something you did or said, a kind word, a helping hand, a simple conversation, a moment when somebody cared. And maybe that's the greatest souvenir we bring home from our travels. This has been according to Willie B. I'll see you next week. We've got some new information on some cruise uh industry things going on out there. I think you're gonna want to know, and that will be next week. But until I see you next week, do not forget to caffeinate and conquer because you know that's extremely important. And I'll see you right here behind this big old mic next week. I appreciate each and every one of you listening. Thank you and have a great day. Bye bye.