‘Nice’– a throwaway word

It was one of those...well ‘NICE’ moments.

And God knows, we’re all in need of an urgent intravenous injection of ‘niceness’ as we grapple with the aftermath of a deadly tropical cyclone called Gabrielle and 6.3 magnitude earthquake that had Wellington rocking and rolling.

Gabrielle translates as ‘God is my strength’ or ‘woman of God’ – but I suspect God would want to distance himself from Gabby’s fury on this occasion. Anyhow – niceness!

Nice gesture #1

A ‘nice’ young couple are dealing with a tyre puncture by the entrance to the Four Square in Katikati. ey are trying to put a “space-saver” on their ‘fart-on-roller-skates’ – a tiny car – ‘compact’ is the o cial manufacturer term. Everyone, bar none, going in or coming out of that Four Square was stopping to ask if they were okay, if they needed help. ey didn’t, but each time the couple would stop what they were doing, chat and politely decline o ers. en, just as they got back to work, someone else would step up to o er help and they’d go through it all again. Niceness in abundance.

“But because of all the niceness, a ve-minute job took 45 minutes,” observed the observer. “It was very funny, and lovely and nice all at the same time.” ey do ‘nice’ very well in Katikati and that’s why the observer loves her wee town.

Interesting that a couple of days later, the Katikati observer passed a young guy dealing with a at tyre on Takitimu Drive. If there was any ‘niceness’, it drove past at 80km/hr.

I always considered ‘nice’ to be one of those nebulous, saccharine and unsatisfying words. He’s a nice person – someone between a saint and a serial killer. It’s a nice day –do we take a brolly or break out the Speedos? Nice cake – which you bury it under your tongue until you can spit it out later. at’s a nice dress – a face-saving compliment covering everything from stylish to cheap, tacky, tawdry, trashy or garish. Yep, ‘nice’ covers it. But we are sticking with that word ‘nice’ today because great things, famous things, really nice things happen in the name of ‘nice’.

NZ is collectively NICE

Remember wee Eve van Grafhorst – born premature, she contracted AIDS from life-saving blood transfusions. Fearmongering drove her out of her home town in Australia, and she was welcomed with open arms in Hastings, New Zealand. at was nice.

It was also nice when in 1987 an unprotected and gloveless Princess Diana strode bravely into a London AIDS clinic and shook hands with an AIDS patient. With just one nice, compassionate gesture, the Princess challenged the false belief you could die from AIDS by just touching someone. We all felt the niceness.

NICE is a sacri ce en 24 years later after the nuclear power plant crisis in Fukushima, Japan, there was a collective outpouring of niceness. Two hundred Japanese pensioners volunteered to risk working at the radioactive site rather than exposing the young workforce. ey gured any cancer they might develop would take 20 to 30 years to manifest by which time they’d be dead anyway. at’s at the upper extremes of being nice. Niceness can occur in many guises and on many levels. Here’s how it happens at home.

Spontaneous NICENESS

Leap forward 11 years to a cheap and cheerful barber shop on Cameron Rd. Two chairs are going at out on a busy Friday morning. e pressure is on. e hair is piling up on the oor. A gru old guy in a wife-beater and Stubbies has had his eece groomed vaguely respectable. He pays up, then just before leaving, grabs the broom and sweeps the barber shop oor clean. “Saves a job,” he says cheerfully before whistling his way out the door. NICE touch mate.

NICE is beating the grumps

ere’s a woman who walks every morning before work and steadfastly greets everyone she passes, often the same people on her regular route. “After a while we become ‘Hullo’ friends, we exchange greetings and smiles. We’ve lost our stranger-ness. at’s a nice feeling.

And the guy who walks to work and picks up 15 pieces of rubbish every day. “I can’t x the problem, but I can contribute to the solution.”

Do some math – 15,000 of us, 10 per cent of the Tauranga’s population, each pick up 15 pieces of rubbish a day, then tatty Tauranga would be tidy town. NICE work!

Perhaps the personi cation of niceness at the moment is the cherubic troubadour, Ed Sheeran, who’s just charmed his way through the country. Cynics may call it smart marketing, but I prefer to think he’s just a nice bloke. He reckons the main thing you have to remember on this journey – in life I think he means – is be nice to everyone and always smile.

He can a ord NICENESS – damned near nine million people have paid $350 a ticket to watch his last 260 shows. NICE guy makes NICE coin.

NICE is getting someone wrong

A big, burly, heavily-tattooed guy follows my friend in the lunchtime queue in a local bakery. He had one of those wild ZZ Top beards with its own ecosystem. Friend reminds himself not to cross BBHTG in an alley on a dark night. However when friend’s Eftpos card refuses to work, and he’s standing stranded with an unpaid-for pie, two club sandwiches and a raging hunger, who steps up and o ers to pay for his lunch?

Friend says he must remember not to prejudge people. at was a year ago, big burly heavily tattooed guy’s NICENESS lingers on.

TINO RAWE – very NICE

I must have looked lost, and I was...on a ride somewhere near a stunningly beautiful marae in Judea on a Sunday afternoon. An elegant Māori woman with a moko kauae was mowing her berm. She senses my hopelessness, turns o the mower, wipes away the perspiration and asks if she can help. I say: “I hope so, cos I am lost.” “No, you aren’t lost cos I know where you are,” she chuckles.

She directs me out of trouble and back to the harbour track. And with a ‘Kia pai tō rā’, she cranks up the mower. ank you, I’ll have a NICE day, because of our very NICE encounter. Had a NICE moment recently? Please share it with us. Make us all feel good.

Email: hunter@thesun.co.nz

Hon Jan Tinetti

Labour List MP

For appointments and assistance please phone: 07 571 2492 jan.tinetti@parliament.govt.nz @jantinetti

Authorised by Hon Jan Tinetti MP, Parliament Buildings, Wellington