Erin McHugh - One Good Deed: 365 Days of Trying to Be Just a Little Bit Better

Praise for One Good Deed

Engaging, funny, wise, and winning, One Good Deed is a measure of humanity and of McHughs own striving towards it.

Susan Orlean, author of Rin Tin Tin and
The Orchid Thief

One Good Deed is original, sweet-natured and often funny Erin McHugh makes us ordinary mortals feel like real heels.

Meg Wolitzer, author of The Uncoupling and The Ten-Year Nap

I loved this book. Its charming and high-spirited and then it sneaks up from behind and breaks/mends your heart!

Susan Cheever, writer, teacher, and author of Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography

Erin McHugh spent one year performing one good deed a day and recording her experiences. The result, this lovely, heartfelt book, shows humanity at its very best. Sometimes her good deeds are small and go unnoticed; other times, theyre quite important, and will bring a sting of tears to the readers eyes. Perhaps McHugh will start a trend. We could certainly do with more people like her in the world.

Kaylie Jones, author of Lies My Mother Never Told Me: A Memoir

In Erin McHughs inspiring bookso gently, so directly written from her gentle, direct heartshe tells us at one point to make someone feel visible. I felt more visible myself as I read it, for she sees quite clearly what we all needto be shown that showing kindness to others is showing kindness to ourselves.

Kevin Sessums, author of Mississippi Sissy

Editor: David Cashion
Designer: Kris Tobiassen
Production Manager: Ankur Ghosh

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McHugh, Erin.

One good deed: 365 days of trying to be just a little bit better / Erin McHugh.

p. cm.

ISBN: 978-1-4197-0417-8 (alk. paper)

1. McHugh, Erin. 2. Conduct of Life. 3. Charity. 4. Kindness. I. Title.

BJ1589.M34 2012

158.1dc23

2012008317

Copyright 2012 Erin McHugh

Published in 2012 by Abrams Image, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Abrams Image books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fund-raising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact specialsales@abramsbooks.com or the address below.

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FOR MY PARENTS

James Francis McHugh

Dorothy Kavanaugh McHugh

Its not like the concept of One Good Deed needs a lot of explainingits an easy one to grasp: consciously try to do one small thing for someone else every single day. When I talk about it with people, I can very nearly hear the wheels turning. Interesting idea, theyre thinking. Possibly even fun. Could I actually do it? And of course everyone asks me the same question: What gave me the idea to doand then to writeOne Good Deed? Where did this idea come fromand why now?

Good questions. The answer is simply that I was just feeling a little off. For many years, Id done a lot of volunteer and activism work, and I loved it. It made me feel happy and proud, in the simplest ways. Im the kind of person who loves to be part of a gang, tooa team, a work family, a committee. I like being a cog in the wheel and seeing change occur.

But when I was fifty-two years old, I decided I wanted to write seriouslyI had been an advertising copywriter for almost two decades, but now I really wanted to fulfill my longtime dream of writing books. I got myself a job as a bookseller during the day, and at night, I came home and wrote. So I was proud in a different way, but now my volunteering life all but disappeared. I even bowed out of chairing my college reunions, which I had been doing for thirty years. I was too busy.

But I missed helping out, in whatever guise. It started bothering me; first just a tiny bit, now and again, way in the back of my mind. Then it grew to something unnameable, a malaise, like a low-level temperature the doctor can do nothing about. And then this other thing happened. A sort of crazy thing.

We got a saint in our family.

No, really.

His name is Andr Bessette, and he is my aunt Tessies great-great-uncle. Shes my aunt by marriage, so technically Andr is not a relation, but she remembers him from her childhood and has been telling me stories about him forever. And now news had come that he was to be canonized. I mean, who has a saint in their family? Who? Even if youre not religious, stories of Brother Andrs life are incredible; some, myself included, would say miraculous. When I prayed over the years, I would pray through Brother Andr. It was easy: he was a real person to mejust a man who did extraordinary things.

So, between the no volunteering and the Brother Andr news, I started to think: I could be doing a little better than this. A little more each day. A little kinder, a little more helpful, a little more thoughtful. I wondered if I tried to do something nice for someone else each day, if it would change the way I was feeling. And thats when I thought of One Good Deed.

I wanted to give it a try, write it all down and see if it would inspire me; I decided to keep a blog and see if I could inspire others to join in on the deed-doing. Mostly, I wondered whether I could actually do it, and whether it would make me feel changed.

From the start I found I had to get myself in training. I tend to look at the sidewalk when I walka bad habit. You miss a lot that way. It means Im looking inward, thinking about my day, my problems, whatever, while literally missing whats right in front of me. I tried actually changing my outlook by making a concerted effort to notice what was going on around meand trying to be more observant helped my good-deeding enormously. Opportunities are often right there. Having to watch over myself, having to really pay attention to each day, was sort of like being on a diet, but in a not unpleasant way. Before long, I found I started thinking about the days good deed as I showered, got dressed for work, and started the day. I kept a calendar, so I wouldnt forget to bring my Christmas tree to the mulchfest, attend a local fair, participate in a winter-coat drive coming up. But most of the time? I was just winging it.

Sure, there was occasional foot-dragging or a day spent prone in front of the TV, but in the main I was on it. I made a point to talk to people and snap them out of their bored reverie: cashiers, commuters, garbagemen. Most appreciated itall seemed surprised. But I found interacting with more people who crossed my path brought more chances to make a little bit of a difference. Most times, we both left our brief encounter feeling a little bit better.

Then there were days when something someone else did was far more interesting and poignant than anything I could muster (a favorite is my friend Erikas subway hero of ), or I wanted to share a long-ago memory or piece of advice. Youll find those stories here, too. I worried as I kept my diary that my deeds would be repetitive, because life is repetitive. But when the year ended and I read over my adventures, I found that even if the good deed seemed familiar, the players, and the story, changed every time.