When Did Kindness Become Obsolete?
No matter the orbit of politics one follows, the expression of kindness among humans has nearly become obsolete.
This is more than a tragedy, it’s a genuine threat to our survival. We are social animals, and as such the human species requires kindness to thrive.
Interestingly, kindness is more appealing to us humans than love.
Unlike love, kindness is a noncommittal emotion. We can feel kindness fleetingly, it lowers our stress levels and conveys no threat to our well-being. It takes only a brief moment for kindness to make us laugh or cry without our having to relate to it continuously. Many can live long periods without love, but in the absence of kindness, we streak like shooting stars before burning out.
In the power infused, hate soaked political arena we’ve entered, our kindness capital has become bankrupt. Beyond politics, a significant portion of the population has risen up with clubs to beat any show of kindness to a pulp whenever and wherever it makes a humble appearance. The mind wonders:
Is there any place on our blue planet where kindness still resides?
Enter cats, dogs, goats, dogs and babies, and inter-species interactions. YouTube lists:
25 billion views of cat videos
35,842,734 views of goats yelling like humans
23,417,777 views of puppies and babies
10,045,943 views of a wild fawn with an injured leg
1,993,499 views of a Great Dane and a fawn
just to name a few.
But where does that leave us?
Why are we unable or reluctant to express kindness to one another? It’s easy to point to the corrosively impersonal safety of tech or the frightening reality of terrorism, but we ultimately have only ourselves to blame. It takes nothing to move away from a device or the inner working of our minds to a moment of personal contact, to smile at a stranger or offer a humorous observation. But far too often most of us choose to remain aloof, cocooned inside our insulated and impersonal lives.
Whether we choose to wall ourselves off or throw ourselves in, kindness remains the safest entry point. We are always richer for the effort kindness requires, and when we make this effort, it costs us nothing but pleasure.
