Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Kindness

    If kindness does, in fact, bind us to others, why is this so? 
    When we extend kindness, is there a shift in the way we see others as individuals, or a shift in the way we see our relationship to others in a larger context? 
    Does kindness change us only as individuals, or does it also engender a change in the social order? 
    If we feel ourselves to be kind, are we also challenged to become more just? 
    Is compassion greater than simple kindness?

These questions are asked as a "Midday Meditation" in "Your Daybook," an e-mail newsletter that I receive from the Odyssey Networks. As our society seems to increasingly distance itself from simple kindness--we won't even get into civility here--the questions seem to me more than merely a meditative exercise.

I find the last three questions to be the most pertinent. The answer, to me, is yes in all three cases. You?