Day 18 - Kindness

I'm beginning to feel like kindness is becoming extinct in our world. Think about it. How often do you see someone doing something kind for someone else? How often do you see someone doing something hurtful to someone else? Look at the trends on TV - more and more shows are popping up (espcially reality shows) where the characters thrive on being ugly to each other. We, as an audience, thrive on watching them be ugly to each other. Popular culture has become all about put-downs and one-upping another person. Now, there may be times when feelings of anger are justified, but it seems that our culture thrives on the negative treatment of others.


At what point will it stop?


With me, it stops right now. If there is a car waiting to merge, I'm going to let it in. If someone is behind me in line, I'm going to let them go ahead of me. If I'm in a drive-thru, I may even pay for the person behind me. Why not? Bringing a little random joy to others is the way to bring joy to myself.


I'm also going to have zero tolerance for unkind people. If you want to be rude, don't do it around me. I refuse to watch any TV that doesn't make me feel good about myself or the human race (not too hard since I hardly watch TV at all). I will defend those that aren't around to defend themselves. I will only surround myself with kind thoughts.


Now, I'm not saying that I plan to bury my head in the sand and pretend that there isn't any ugliness in this world. I know there are a lot of mean people out there who don't care anything about hurting others. What I'm saying is that I plan to battle the unkindness that surrounds me. Trust me, this is no easy task. I work with 10 to 13 year olds, a group that notoriously known for their bullying. But I'm done - I'm with Thumper's mama on this one (from Bambi), "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

Here's your challenge - compliment someone today that you normally wouldn't talk to.