...kindness

I've mentioned before that, despite my great admiration for people who are instinctively and consistently nice, kindness does not come naturally to me. 

Yet the older I get, the more I agree with theologian Abraham Heschel who said, "When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people." 

Author Henry James was more emphatic: "Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind."

In 1994, Dr. Chuck Wall, a professor of human relations and management at Bakersfield College in California, came up with a concept that turned into an influential movement. Weary of hearing about "senseless acts of violence," he began to teach and talk about "random and senseless acts of kindness." 

The idea was simple: The best response to a world coarsened by selfishness and cruelty is individual acts of kindness.

In 1999, Catherine Ryan Hyde wrote a novel called Pay It Forward (later turned into a movie) that built on Dr. Wall's initial inspiration. It starts with a teacher's assignment to her class: 

THINK OF AN IDEA FOR WORLD CHANGE AND PUT IT INTO ACTION.

Trevor, the 12-year-old hero, comes up with an idea. Do something "real good" for three people and ask in return that instead of paying him back, they "pay it forward" by doing a good deed for three other people. They, in turn, are asked to pay it forward to three others. The math quickly shows how such a concept could change the world.

Whether acts of kindness are spontaneous as advocated by Dr. Wall or premeditated as proposed by Ms. Hyde, they are certainly not senseless. 

To the contrary, they're the best possible proof of good sense. 

Every single person can send forth ripples of kindness and compassion simply by being nice.

-michael josephson