Today is Kindness.
I saw these two pictures hung in a little mall gallery among the images and paintings of the Manhattan skyline, the Brooklyn Bridge and Yankee Stadium. I hate it that these characters are heroes. I hate feeling that hatred in these days when hatred of the other is so casually expressed and then so often met with an equally vitriolic hate of the haters.
It’s probably just me and my own struggle to adjust to slightly different cultural norms, but somehow it plays into my concern about the social disaster we have seen playing out over the last couple of years, where the level and quantity of unkindness on this platform have been shocking. This past year, adapting to my new home here on the east coast, has been hard, especially in the way it feels so much less kind to me. I am stunned when a counterperson barks at me, terrified when someone lays on their horn as they cut me off and amazed at the nasty way I hear so many parents talking to their kids.
I had thought the new paradigm had begun to take hold. The one revealed by systems, game and chaos theories, with its understanding of the intricate interconnectedness of ourselves and our institutions, and its clear revelation of the superiority of positive sum interactions. I still foresee this new evidence-based philosophy eventually overtaking the cruel and obsolete values sanctified in various holy texts left over from the last millennia, but here among proud New Yorkers who seem to have sanctified mob life, it feels more distant that I had hoped.
This year, when I sit down to add these Hollydays’ posts about our daily theme, Facebook has been delivering me one of my posts from years past. It makes it hard not to be derivative of myself, so forgive my repeating an old reference to one of my favorite films, Frank Capra’s beautiful and inspiring Lost Horizon. It’s simple enough to take the advice from the High Lama of Shangri-la, and just be kind. Not much more is required to quell the eager flaming.
So, with Santa nigh, try to avoid the naughty list and please be kind to one and all.
HOLLY DAYS 