“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.”
– Bob Kerrey
There is a great power in kindness. An energy to compassion. Love itself can change history. Hope has birthed civilization itself. These are the macro effects of “good.”
A held hand, a listening ear. A reassurance of presence. A small kindness that makes one’s day. A word of love and hope much needed. These are the micro effects of good.
And, who knows which births which? Does a national act of compassion cause the many small compassionate actions? Or, do the many small kindnesses spawn global hope? Is it the hunt for one kidney donor, which goes national that fundamentally changes the few, who partially change the many, who microaffect the all? Or, one child found in an airport, reunited with loved ones, that spawns a thousandthousand searches for others who are lost?
There is the famous story of when Princess Diana, in 1987, at the heights of the AIDS epidemic, visited a hospital in London where she was photographed shaking the hand, without gloves on, of a patient suffering from AIDS. This single gesture changed the world dialog around AIDS, challenging one of the many false beliefs around the disease and brought AIDS – and those suffering from it – fully into the public spotlight.
Four years later, Diana paid another visit to the AIDS ward in Middlesex. During the visit, Diana had an encounter with a patient which mirrored the one from Harlem two years prior. In a transcript of her own words, “I had always wanted to hug people in hospital beds. This particular man who was so ill started crying when I sat on his bed, and he held my hand and I thought, ‘Diana, do it, just do it,’ and I gave him an enormous hug. It was just so touching because he clung to me and he cried.”
In the small acts of kindness, humanity, compassion and care, Princess Diana placed a face of compassion on those suffering from AIDS and started several AIDS foundations, research groups and patient advocacy groups that exist even to today.
A worldwide movement of understanding, compassion and healing started with the shaking of a single hand. The hugging of a person in need.
We do not know how our acts of kindness will affect the world. Whether they touch few or go on to shape nations. We just know that kindness truly does matter.
— Steven D. Lee Freelance writer Student of Spiritual Direction
Always remember there is goodness everywhere and kindness matters.
