What to Do Next: The Kindness Campaign

Yesterday I ate ice cream in the middle of the day. I cried off and on. I marveled at the grace that Hillary showed and her respect for our democracy. I wrote nasty responses to Trump supporters’ Facebook crowing (and then deleted them before I posted them). I did my share of wallowing in it all.

But today I’m going high. Today I’m thinking about what I can do to make sure this never happens again. And I believe it all comes down to kindness, especially in instilling kindness into our children.

When I think of Hillary, the fist images that come to me are those pictures of Hillary and Bill when they were just kids, kids out to make a difference, committed to political activism and social justice for all. I want my children to have pictures of themselves like that someday because I have a distinct feeling that most people who voted for Trump have no such images in their albums.

We have a game (well, more a conversation starter) that we play at dinner every night. It’s a common one across many dinner tables: high points/low points or as my daughter’s teacher calls it, peaches and pits.

I’ve decided to add one more element to this conversation. What kind thing did you do for someone else today?

By not just sharing the great things that happened for us and the bad things that happened to us but by making ourselves (parents included) accountable on a daily basis for what we did for others, we have a chance to unite our country, heal our wounds, and make sure we have a better tomorrow. It’s a small step but that’s OK. It’s a start. And as any writer will tell you, putting pen to paper, putting words to action, is the hardest, most important, most exhilarating step of all.