Where does our belief in the kindness of strangers come from?
He is a Tibetan, when he was 5 years old, he walked with a group of Tibetan people crossing the Himalayas to take refuge in North India. His parents are still in Lhasa, since India banned WeChat, he can no longer talk to his parents directly. Every time he wants to tell them something, he has to send a message to his German cousin, who then will send a message to his parents on WeChat. While talking, I noticed on his right arm the tattoo "Mom & Dad" with a red heart next to them, just a simple and popular tattoo when words are no longer necessary.?
I met him while we were riding a motorbike to explore Cedar hill in Dharamsala, India. he saw us having difficulty driving on the rocky road, and thought we were two Tibetans who were finding their way, so he stopped and asked if we needed help. He realized that we are not Tibetans, then he asked if we wanted to check out a beautiful stream where he and his colleagues will camp overnight. Perhaps before reading the story above, many of us often have fears, as to why we dare to follow strangers easily in such a deserted area. But my instincts and beliefs (which, most of the time, are fortunately true) tell me that many of the people we meet every day are good and kind people. So we followed him, and what happens next? You already knew the result.?
?Where does our belief in the kindness of strangers come from?
Among the figures honored for saving Jews from the genocide, Chiune “Sempo” Sugihara is not a well-known name in Vietnam, but he personally saved nearly 6000 Jews through his own work. Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania in the 40s, when his superiors told him not to give passports to Jews to escape the Nazis, he decided to help them anyway. With a Japanese transit visa, the Soviet Union allowed refugees to take a trans-Siberian train to Japan.?
Estimated, Sugihara provided a total of 6,000 visas to any Jew who came to his office for help. He spent 20 hours a day working to issue as many visas as he could and even continued to do so on the train when he was evacuated. He did not care if they were citizens of the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, or Lithuania. Simply because they are all human and must be rescued when their lives are in danger.
When finding out the reason why he risked disobeying the orders of his superiors and the country to save the Jewish people in distress, it was discovered that when he was a child, his family had opened an inn, seeing strangers in and out in front of him every day made him more comfortable with strangers. He accepted the presence of strangers naturally.?
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"I was a stranger, and you welcomed me"
In Malcolm Gladwell's new podcast episode of The Revisionist History "I was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me" is named after a Bible verse.
"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me. I was ill and you comforted me, in prison and you came to visit me. I assure you, as often as you did it for the least among you, you did it for me." — Matthew 25:35-40
Malcome tells the story of how his parents with their friends sponsored and helped three Vietnamese refugees after the war ended, each of them did just one small thing and took turns from inviting refugees to their homes for dinner every night, seeing that the refugees needed to go to school, someone immediately recommended a good school, knowing someone in need of a job, someone else suggested a place to work. This is just one of the thousands of stories of how Canadian families have done to help Vietnamese refugees back then and other refugees later. Only by very small acts of kindness combined from so many different people. As a result, it saved more than hundreds of thousands of different lives.
Sacrifice is giving up what we value most to help others, generosity is giving what we have in excess to help someone in need, and kindness is a small act even though temporary and does not require too much effort, but when they are multiplied, it can save a life. And wonders: do we underestimate the value of ordinary acts of kindness? Malcome sharing in his podcast.?
Opening up to strangers, and doing small acts of kindness whenever possible with strangers, are things that seem increasingly out of place in this modern world, but perhaps it is a recipe for keeping us from losing faith in the goodness of others in this perplexing world.?