DAILY CHOICE: Sunday, November 8, 2009
Posted on | November 8, 2009 | Comments Off on DAILY CHOICE: Sunday, November 8, 2009
Kind vs. Mean
REFLECTION:
Of all the gifts we have to offer each other, kindness is of greatest value to the most people. Human kindness is instinctive but must be modeled to take hold. As the individual moves toward independence, kindness will compete with other instincts like exclusion, fear, and self-interest. Kindness must be bred in, well-established, incapable of detachment. It must also be exercised by societal expectations that reinforce “better to be kind than mean”. Kindness should not be held hostage to pretenders who smile only for a purpose, who reach out only to pull back in. Kindness is its own reward. Kindness works against the opposite which seeks to diminish, to belittle, to isolate. Unkindness ultimately is most unkind to those who are its source. One should not wait to be kind. There is no one perfect time. Every time is a perfect time.
Japanese saying
Victor Hugo
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Charles L. Lucas
Congo proverb
Mark Twain