Today at work a young family knocked on the door of our, for all intents and purposes, residential looking office. I greeted them and they wasted no time in stating their proposition. For ten or fifteen bucks, they would wash my car. I told them I'd have to pass, but I'd check around and see if anyone else wanted a car wash. First, I asked my boss. I expected him to decline the offer, so when he said yes I just stood in his door going, "Oh. Okay. Really?" I thought he was annoyed with me for interrupting him, but maybe he was just annoyed that I couldn't manage the details of the transaction for him. He pushed past me to go talk to the soon-to-be auto detail crew waiting on the deck. Soon he came back and asked the office if anyone else wanted their car washed. I said something like, "Yeah, but I don't have ten dollars for it." Then it was his turn to give me an incredulous "really?" So that's how it happened. He asked if I wanted it washed if he paid for it. I gave a resounding affirmative. My car and at least three others were washed. I didn't even realize how much it had been needed until my lunch break when I stepped out into the parking lot of glistening cars lined up. Oh my, those suds were a long time coming...
From a different perspective, the crowd at my office tend to have variously diverging views of the world and the order of things in it, most often coming to light when the conversation veers towards predictably controversial things like the upcoming presidential election or what my boss likes to call "women's rights." At times I think I see one particular co-worker take these differences of opinion to heart more than usual (which I secretly find endearing, but not in a condescending way of course). So car-washes all around followed by my boss' declaration that this is an appropriate way to help people out with charity rang out as one of those moments when everyone could, I think, detect the common ground of good intentions between disparate approaches.