Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.— from Larkin’s “The Mower“
Kindness is the Concern, the Question, the Essential Ingredient. For us all.
Our collective crises (Climate change issues, our nuclear dynamic, racial issues, etc.) have deadlines attached to them. And on many counts kindness must be included in any solutions being considered. Right away. Yesterday.
Kindness is crucial to ruling out cruelty, encouraging compassion, making collective advances.
Within a family, if one spouse is less than kind it impacts negatively on the children. And if vengeance (coming off of an argument) dominates the household, well, the effect should be clear; one can’t advance the health of the family in such an atmosphere.
Talking down to a husband, ridiculing a wife, that sort of thing doesn’t contribute to family health, especially if it’s de rigueur in a given home. There are other manifestations of unkind actions, unkind thoughts which I won’t go into. But their first cousins should be obvious. We all — if we’ve lived long enough — should be able to remember our own participation, feeding the monster who lives at the opposite end of the spectrum from both Mr. Kindness and Ms. Kindness.
IN ACTIVISM — acting out as a concerned citizen seeking movement in solidarity (to make this a better world, to encourage a sense of family among all the creatures on this earth) — kindness must now rear its beautiful head. Treating one and all…