Kindness Knows No Borders

We used to live in a world where for the most part, we knew where kindness began and where it ended. Once in a while it was the restaurant server who gave you extra rolls without asking when they saw how hungry your children were.   Maybe it was the neighbor who shoveled your drive-way when you broke your shoulder. Now in the world of COVID-19, kindness has no borders. Neighbors who we didn't even know existed are lending a hand, an ear, or even a roll of toilet paper to us. Delivery workers are dropping off goods with a smile because they know how comforting it is to see. Recovered patients are donating their blood plasma to strangers, just so they can help save others' lives.  Even some corporations are expressing kindness by donating extra goods or offering free services or services at a reduced price because of the state of the current economy.

One of my favorite stories of kindness is about a man who lately has being buying a chocolate bar when he goes grocery shopping. However, once he pays for it, he leaves it at the counter. The cashier says, "Mr. you left this," pointing at the chocolate bar. John says, "Yes, that is for you. Thank you."

So what exactly is kindness?  Instead of providing a dictionary definition, I want to share the first part of a poem called Kindness by poet Naomi Shyeb Nye that illustrates kindness:

Before you know what kindness really is

you must lose things,

feel the future dissolve in a moment

like salt in a weakened broth.

What you held in your hand,

what you counted and carefully saved,

all this must go so you know

how desolate the landscape can be

between the regions of kindness.

How you ride and ride

thinking the bus will never stop,

the passengers eating maize and chicken

will stare out the window forever.

The poem points to empathy as the catalyst for the kindness shift that is being activated inside each of us.  Even though we may not have ever traveled to Italy or Iran or South Korea, we now know firsthand what it feels like for people all over the world to be struggling with issues of health, grief, anxiety, despair, and loneliness (to name a few). Living in this pandemic world has eradicated the barriers that once inhibited neighbors, not to mention strangers all across the world, from exhibiting acts of kindness. This only proves that kindness is a currency that knows no borders, no colors, no size or shape. It derives its value when we experience pain, sorrow, suffering, and sadness.  It unleashes its greatest impact when we act with empathy, remembering our greatest common denominator, that of our shared human experience.  From what I've witnessed these last few weeks, being kind is even more contagious than a virus and fortunately much more generative. We should gain hope from how fast kindness is spreading and what it could mean for our future.