13 years ago driving back from Las Vegas to LA, when my daughter was 11, we were finishing up a late dinner at a roadside Denny's. Next to us was a young couple in their early 20's, obviously madly in love. He had a mechanic's shirt on. They had the ashtray out of their car and were counting the change. I heard her say he should get something, that she wasn't hungry, but you know damned well she was. When we paid, I told the waitress to bring them both cheeseburger plates and an apple pie and ice cream when they finished. I paid in cash, but asked her not to tell them until we left the restaurant. The waitress almost cried. My daughter said "Dad, you did a "RAK". Her teacher told her RAK's are "random acts of kindness".

From that day on, every night until she went off to college, at dinner we would ask each other what was our RAK for the day. I have to say it changed our outlook on life. We didn't always have a RAK, but I will say most days we did...and still do.

I used to believe that I was a good Samaritan at heart, but after watching Dr. Wayne Dyer's "The Shift" I came to realize that I wasn't. There is a certain point in the movie where a rich guy and a homeless guy meet at a lakefront park bench and when the homeless guys asks the rich guy if he has any money, I realized that I would have responded by saying that I only had the pennies that he had given me which would have been the incorrect answer. I am thankful for movies like this because they teach me that I haven't learned everything that I think I know...