Friday, October 12, 2007

A harvest of kindness

WHIPLASH by Luxie doo'

9:33pm. After dinner.

I wasn't planning on writing right now. But since I'm not in the mood for a film then here I am wishing there'd be somebody to talk to instead...But then everybody is busy.The rest of the family is too ( watching "Bobby")...ME?...I'm just here talking to a screen.


So....what can I say?... I want to say that I think our world is experiencing a dearth in kindness. In fact, I think the longer the earth spins the faster kindness dissipates. Maybe a better analogy would be....a pool filled up with water...then people after people after people after people jumping in for maybe about a year without replenishing the gushed out splashes...Eventually that pool runs out of water just when the last person jumps in...OUCH!

I still have on my mind what that man in the news said. I'm sure you've read about it.His wife became distraught while in an airport. Officials handcuffed her and left her inside a room. Somehow she managed to strangle herself and she died. The husband said if only somebody took the time to be kind..sat down with her..comforted her..then she would have been alive still. She just needed kindness. How much would that cost? Would it be too much of a sacrifice?

It isn't just in airports where kindness is missing...it's missing here and there and everywhere...It's missing in the streets...in the alleys..in the gutters....It's missing in big and small houses...It's missing in the rich..the middle class and the poor.....It's missing in children and adults...It's missing in men and women alike...It's missing in malls and in churches...This planet is running out of kindness as fast as it is running out of trees!

Trees can be planted back though...starts with a seed...If each one person would plant one..then there'd be about um'...( am' bad with Math) oh' just billions and billions of new tress to enjoy someday...

Maybe kindness can be planted too. I dunno' where to get kindness seeds though...Do you know where I can get some?...

Honestly, I need to plant at least one..right now...inside my heart.






16 comments:

Guatyen said...

wow! "kindness seeds"... i like that. hmmm... where can we get kindness seeds? i feel that it can just pops out from our heart, love and compassion are like that. reminds me a kindness act(seed) i did(planted) down in singapore with a fellow young collegue, he just stared at me, he 'got' it. and i know he will do (plant kindness seeds) to others when that time arises. that's how the seeds are spread. yes? 1+1+1+1....

Bubbie said...

You write such wonderfull and poinant posts. I love to visit. Kindness Seeds...we all should make a point to plant each day.

daisies said...

kindness seeds are easily created, i grow them all the time and like to spread them about :) they recreate faster than bunnies if allowed some air : )

i love this post and your photo is absolutely stunningly beautiful! xox

Unknown said...

this post makes me think of two things that happened recently.

a week ago an elderly couple went out for an evening of dining at their favourite chinese restaurant. it was raining ... the husband did not want his to get wet, so he dropped her off at the door and went to park. being a saturday evening in a big city, and raining ... parking was hard to come by.

eventually he parked ... across the street from the restaurant about a block or so away. the street was poorly lit ~ no bright streetlights ... and visibility was poor, being so rainy and misty (close to the mts). there were no crosslights or traffic lights ... no crosswalks. the man started to cross the street. he never made it.

his wife and friends, awaiting his arrival in the restaurant ... got worried when he did not return to join them for dinner. the men went out to look for him. one of them found their friend, lying on the street, face down, under a minivan. apparently someone had mowed the elderly man down ... hit him ~ while he tried to cross the street ~ with such force that he flew into the air and landed 30 feet away ... face down under a minivan.

the motorist never stopped, never turned him/her self in. the man died. he was 77, and was married to his wife for 56 years. she has never loved any other man ... they started dating when she was 16. and now he's dead. and she has no idea who killed him.

what have we become? where can i get some of those kindness seeds ... sorrow such as this ~ when i hear about it ~ just scalds my heart ... so much that nothing can grow in it anymore.

these people in this tragedy are strangers to me ... but still, my heart feels scorched and barren at humanity's capacity for cruelty and brutality and wreckless disregard for others.

*****************

what is kindness? is it just whitewashing everything? is it truth? compassion? when is compassion appropriate? all the time? is compassion necessarily niceness? is truth?

i had an experience with someone i will refer to as intolerant. others around me have witnessed intolerance from this person. its repugnant and poisonous. even tho the intolerance was not directed toward me. in a way ... intolerance/bigotry directed toward one group is really an attack on all humanity, isn't it?

how does one show kindness to such an individual? by ignoring the intolerant behaviour? by whitewashing it? by pretending we don't see it? is that kindness ... to refrain from expressing our true visceral reactions, for fear we may cause waves? is this kindness ... doctoring the truth based on some notion we have of the perceptions of others?

sorry if it seems i've hijacked your post ... but, this last incident, particularly is eating me up. i want to think that truth is always in order ... even when its ugly. but so many around me seem to execute their existence based on the notion that truth is only in order when its pretty.

and ... well, i suppose that's just another thing that scalds and scorches my frail, brittle and breaking heart.

if you want the border removed from around your header i can do that ... just resend me your login info ~ the.red.mantissa@gmail.com

hope you're well. enjoy your weekend.

Synchronicity said...

very excellent post. nowadays i am shocked when someone is kind. i have come to expect neutrality or unkindness from folk.

Rose - Watching Waves said...

Kindness is contagious - and the world is indeed in need of an epidemic. A thoughtful word, a momentary pause to notice another's pain/joy/sorrow/confusion. Taking time to be in the moment and truly acknowledge the Divine in one another. Can you imagine how those seeds of kindness could multiply? Oh, joy and beauty in the world! No more sorrow and ugliness. Let's start planting!

Vineeta said...

Its really late at night & Im finally blogging after such a long time. My eyes are wet as I read your posts and all the comments left here by your friends. Especially red mantissas story. I think humans everywhere are the same & something that touches you in your country is the same that will touch someone in the US or Europe or Egypt or me here in India. It is not insubstantial that you are writing about this or that you have all who commented here feel strongly about this. I think thats a real positive sign. I love your kindness seed thought. And I've noticed in my life that when i do something out of turn & out of kindness I feel amazing. So like your friend said- it will all multiply like bunnies & we will be a happier world. This is something that I don't doubt at all.
And Im proud of you for writing this, cause not enough people ( me included) have the courage or the grace to write the way you do, so just keep it coming. Thanx :)

Lapa said...

There are three kinds of women:

the pretty ones

the ugly ones

and the blondes...

(trad.by lapa)

Paul said...

A lot of it seems to me to have to do with people fixating on acquiring personal wealth and power - and being dead to how much more and better and more important there is to be aware of and alive to than that.

I find it highly ironic that when I was a kid, young people were criticizing the WWII generation for being materialistic.

Btw, thanks for your comment to my blog - I was able to combine it with someone else's comment to turn into a post.

X. Dell said...

It's doubtful that the lady at the airport (Carol Gottbaum) strangled herself. It really looks like a homicide.

Talk about a death of kindness. Well, if authorities lack compassion, would we expect anyone else to?

Harvest as much kindenss as you can, and store some for a time when humanity has none left.

Keshi said...

wut a beautiful thought...kindness indeed can be planted. If u r kind to someone else, u'll see it returning to u in many fold.

Keshi.

exskindiver said...

good post and good reminder.

beezee~bee said...

we have it in us, the 'kindness seeds'..its just that some refused 2 share & spread them ard...dats d sad bit.

darkfoam said...

you know..
there is kindness that emanates from the heart.
..and then there are the common courtesies and politenesses that make functioning is our society doable.
i reckon we are beginning to lack in both.

Helene said...

I LOVE THE IDEA! KINDNESS SEEDS... A POSITIVE WAY TO START THE DAY!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK LUXIE

sandy said...

I'm enjoying reading your blog. Good post by the way.

and thanks for your comments and visit.

sandy