Generosity

When Pam and I first moved here, I remem­ber writ­ing about how nice every­one was to us, from the real­tor who helped with the pur­chase, to the banker who set up new accounts for us and got us credit cards, to our new neigh­bors and even the law offices who helped with our immi­gra­tion issues. The postal car­rier for our build­ing was help­ful and friendly, as was our build­ing man­ager and var­i­ous trades­peo­ple who came dur­ing our ini­tial months of setup. I took some of this to be, per­haps, partly the West vs. the East coast, partly the Canada vs. US, and partly just being lucky.

These days, a lit­tle over three years later, I’m now con­vinced it wasn’t luck, because the kind­ness and gen­eros­ity that we ini­tially met with have con­tin­ued. This past month, a friend of mine sur­prised me with lunch and Canucks tick­ets out of the blue (I won’t embar­rass him with nam­ing him, but he knows who he is). For Pam’s birth­day a few weeks ago, our neigh­bor Estelle brought in sev­eral vases of flow­ers, because she was leav­ing town and though Pam would enjoy them. She also gave Pam tick­ets to see the Speed Skat­ing tri­als at the Pacific Col­i­seum today. Yes­ter­day, my friend DaveO, who was work­ing at the happyfrog.ca booth at the Health Show, gave us free tick­ets. Last week I vis­ited with two of the first friends I met just as I moved here, Matt and Mak­taaq (in fact, I’m happy to have known them even knew them before they were mar­ried!), and at their Hal­loween party, Ryan offered to lend me one of his bicycles.

The fre­quent gen­eros­ity of my friends has been seen online in this blog, with offers from Mon­ica and oth­ers to twit­ter that I was look­ing for work (as well as oth­ers who have put the word out on their blogs), mes­sages of good will on birth­days and anniver­saries, and even flat­ter­ing blog posts about me (com­pletely unex­pected as well, I might add. Thanks Raul.). Com­ments from fel­low Bush Refugees Bob and David fre­quently make my day. They also gave us a bot­tle of their own wine.

I’ve seen the fire­works from a fab­u­lous van­tage point in Yale­town with MJ and laughed myself silly at a com­edy night hosted by Tanya. I’ve got­ten patient iPhone con­sult­ing from John and the oppor­tu­nity to write an op-ed piece for the LA Times, thanks to Travis.

I’m only scratch­ing the sur­face. With both Pam and I look­ing for work and liv­ing off of our sav­ings, and all the scary eco­nomic news (on CNN, mainly) I still sub­mit that like George Bai­ley in It’s a Won­der­ful Life, I am truly a rich man, because of friends, and they keep remind­ing me of this fact.

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By David Drucker | Filed in Friends, Life | October 27, 2008 5:26 pm

9 Comments to “Generosity”

  1. AvatarWest End Bob
    Posted: Oct 27th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
    1

    As fel­low Bush Refugees, we find the same recep­tion in our new home, David.

    Not a day goes by when I don’t thank the Uni­verse for finally get­ting us across the 49th.

    Cheers .…
  2. AvatarRaul
    Posted: Oct 27th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
    2

    Friends are really the cur­rency of life, and a great gift, and I am very blessed that I have you and Pam as part of my group of friends here. And you get good things because you give out a lot as well, David. Your gen­eros­ity gives back to you because you’re such a pos­i­tive and encour­ag­ing and help­ful person.

    Canada and Van­cou­ver won a lot when you guys moved here.
  3. AvatarGene Blishen
    Posted: Oct 28th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
    3

    David, it is really peo­ple like you that make the world go round. I think all of us feel that much bet­ter about life because of peo­ple like you and Pam. We are hon­oured that you chose a place like this to move to.
  4. AvatarTherapy
    Posted: Oct 29th, 2008 at 6:44 am
    4

    A stranger is a friend you havent met. So goes a say­ing!!! Your post just con­firmed it!!! Life is worth the liv­ing because God keeps a piece of heaven wher­ever we go. If you know any­one who is despon­dent or depressed give them your smile and extend the hand of friend­ship, just as it was for you.
  5. AvatarRobert Sanzalone
    Posted: Oct 29th, 2008 at 7:47 am
    5

    I agree with the com­ments above. It’s because of the Law of Attrac­tion. It’s nei­ther luck nor Van­cou­ver. It’s you and Pam, David. Enjoy and appreciate.
  6. AvatarMJ Ankenman
    Posted: Oct 31st, 2008 at 2:43 pm
    6

    What a lovely post­ing and right between Cana­dian and Amer­i­can Thanks­giv­ings. I agree with Gene. I am glad we have all ended up in this city and found a won­der­ful group of peo­ple who have enriched our lives.
  7. AvatarDavid Drucker
    Posted: Oct 31st, 2008 at 8:42 pm
    7
    Author Comment

    If I could blush in a com­ment, I would. Thanks, every­one for their words. They mean a lot.
  8. AvatarRyan Cousineau
    Posted: Nov 3rd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
    8

    Look, I have to be hon­est here: I have two sheds full of bicy­cles in var­i­ous states of mis­re­pair. You’d be doing me a favor by tak­ing one off my hands.
  9. AvatarDavid Drucker
    Posted: Nov 3rd, 2008 at 8:22 pm
    9
    Author Comment

    Hey, two sheds or not, I appre­ci­ate it. Isn’t there some joke that uses ‘2 sheds’ as a pun. I can’t believe that I remem­ber the punch line but not the joke.
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