Kindness

Why are people so mean and cruel to one another? Simple. They’re in pain.

Kindness is easy when you’re feeling good. When you’re happy. You smile. You wave. You say hello and mean it when you’re saying you’re having a bright, shiny day.

But when you’re at your lowest, when all is wrong with the world, you get mean. Cruel. Angry. You take out your misery on everyone around you, especially those who are being the kindest.

Because, when you’re not feeling good, you want the rest of the world to feel your pain.

We’ve gotten mean in our political discourse. No one is willing to compromise. Everyone wants to shout at each other. And we point fingers at each other. That other side is to blame.

But casting blame doesn’t make the division go away. All it does is make everyone angrier. And then no consensus can be reached. We continue the yelling match, neither side making any progress.

Well, they did it first, you say. Uh huh. And that resistance you feel is them pushing back at you.

So, take a breath. Smile. And look for your happy place. I know it’s hard. These times are a challenge for us all.

It won’t be until we can find our joy that we can be kind again. And we should be kind. Generous. Then we might feel like we can be open to fixing the divisive issues that have overtaken us of late.

If you approach the world in your fighting stance, the world is going to fight you back. But if you open your heart, you’ll find that there are more kind people in the world than not. Kindness hasn’t gone away. Not really. It may be hiding a bit, but it’s still there.

It’s up to us to bring it back out into the open.

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Comments

  1. Kindness, respect, meeting in the middle. Old fashioned concepts that need to come back into fashion.

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  2. Tell that to the boy that I just met who was forced to move because he was getting beaten every day at school for being LGBTQ. And the administration wouldn't take any action saying that if he was getting beaten it must be his fault.

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    1. But when we meet their hostility with more hostility, we make things worse. Not that it could get much worse for that boy. I understand. And not that we should stand by and do nothing. But yelling at them only gets us yelled at in return.

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  3. I think you have to know when to use force, and when to refrain.

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    1. This is true. Like with everything, you have to know when it'll work and when it won't.

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  4. Here is my sticking point and I'll cite an expert:
    Philip Klinkner, a political scientist at Hamilton College and an expert on race relations, has pored over this ANES data and tells me that “whether it’s good politics to say so or not, the evidence from the 2016 election is very clear that attitudes about blacks, immigrants, and Muslims were a key component of Trump’s appeal.” For example, he says, “in 2016 Trump did worse than Mitt Romney among voters with low and moderate levels of racial resentment, but much better among those with high levels of resentment.”

    You can read the whole thing here:
    https://theintercept.com/2017/04/06/top-democrats-are-wrong-trump-supporters-were-more-motivated-by-racism-than-economic-issues/

    I cannot abide an argument with racists, whether they are willing to admit they're a racist - or not.

    I come from a long line of hillbillies, I have tried being kind but when you support a Manchurian candidate, that couches in xenophobic/racist/homophobic/sexual assault rhetoric, the gloves come off. Period.

    So this is where the election of 2016 has left me:
    https://youtu.be/OxSei2fVP0c

    I refuse to be kind any longer.

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    1. I didn't say you needed to interact with those who refuse to be kind. At a certain point, they're going to choose not to be nice, and you have to walk away from them. It's not worth your sanity. You're not going to change them. It's not your job to.

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