COME to think of it, what is worth more than all the other sayings combined? Surely, we must have heard more than a dozen made-up, over-the-top-of-our-head, and fake proclamations: peace on earth, justice for all, and love, etc.
The best one yet and the least vague of all, tada, came from a few, such as my mother, who passed 19 years ago. She and others only had one lesson to impart. Be kind.
It wasn’t the often-heard “be nice” because (I get it now) the advice to “be nice” is just like saying, don’t call it what it is, coat it just a bit, and in a way, that’s not being true.
There is more than a dash of empathy when one is being kind. It’s being able to see through what the other person is going through. On the other hand, being nice is nothing but a don’t-rock-the-boat thingy, which advises one not to stir things up or make them worse than they are.
Of course, that is subject to interpretation. I’ve just watched a video where an old woman coolly advises that daughters not be taught to be kind lest they open themselves up to being taken advantage of. She instead offers that they be discerning. While likewise true, that is looking at ‘be kind’ from another context.
As a stage dad (fancy name for Yaya), many years ago, when my youngest was still in kindergarten, I heard a mom say to her aggressive son at the playground, play nice. I was sure that it could not have entered the boy’s head for its vagueness. He kept pushing aside the others, but quite ‘nicely’ this time, with lesser force than the usual.
So, whatever is all this for, in the overall scheme and goings-on in the world, one begs to ask? Taking baby steps, really. If but for a brief moment, in the littlest way, that’s just within our insignificant reach and existence (when compared to the global whole), we try to practice being kind… believe a ripple is in the works.
Nothing to do with having faith at all because who was it that said, for every action, a reaction, or something to that effect? Has anyone heard of the theory about the fluttering of butterfly wings in the Amazon?
Lastly, let’s not expect thunderous applause after we do something kind. Never for the likes, because if at all, empathy doesn’t seek recognition. And right now, I’m actually looking at an empty sack of rice lying about in a market pathway, with a faded smiling face looking up, and it’s muddied.
