I found someone’s New York State drivers license about a ½ hour ago, sitting in plain sight on a sidewalk outside a house.

Someone emerged from the house. I held up the license and asked if it was his, or that of anyone he knew.

He looked at it carefully, said “Nope.”

I said “I’ll put it in a mailbox.”

I set off intending to do just that when I took another look at the license. The street address printed thereon was of a building just around the corner from where I stood. I figured what the hell, why not deliver it right back to the person who lost it. Putting it in a USPS blue mailbox would likely mean that several days would pass before it got back to him, by which time he would probably have gone to the time, trouble, and expense of obtaining a replacement.

Unlike a few weeks ago, when I found someone’s iPhone and returned it to them, I did not get the satisfaction of personally handing this license to the person who lost it. The address was that of a 6-story apartment building. I left the license in the foyer, next to the front door in a spot where anyone should be able to spot it.

Good deeds unappreciated are, still, good deeds.

I was on my way back from church, where I once again experienced a snap in my patience and attention span that prevented me from sitting still even for a minute. It did not help that the priest is one I remember for having a thick accent through which, combined with the soupy acoustics of the place, make it just about impossible for me to understand a word he says.

I have always had trouble with accents, I guess on account of rarely encountering them growing up. My only interest in going to church is the sermons, which in this case would have been difficult for me to understand. So I didn’t even try.

I felt a little bad leaving the church so quickly. There were only 4 other people in the congregation, at a church big enough to seat hundreds. But I guess these weekday noontime services are probably always sparsely attended.

Whatever the case my early departure led to finding someone’ license and getting it to their front door. That’s good, right?