Xi'an, China | 09.17.07

Three days into this trip a guy on our tour, Luke, lost his camera in a cab, I felt bad for him, and decided to lend him my camera for the rest of the trip. How can you go on vacation without a camera? It’s crazy.

Anyway, Luke’s tour extended long after my family and I went home, and even though I didn’t really know him, I decided to let him keep the camera. He said he’d return it when he got back stateside, but I was okay if I never saw that camera again.

Fast forward to now, since then, he’s repaid me 1000x over. Numerous pre-screenings. Tickets to Andrew Bird, Flight of the Conchords, Billy Corgan, and most recently last night’s last minute invite to She & Him.

You may do a million favors and selfless acts in your life, but when even just one is paid back in such unexpected genuine gratitude, it’s probably one of the best feelings in the world. When he gushed to his friends on how we became acquaintances, to be honest, it meant more to me than all those shows he got me into.

Things that are Great | 3.15.10
6. Restoring someone’s faith in humanity.