Thoughts on kindness

It is one of my traveling days. And here I am at the airport, waiting at the gate for the boarding to start. I notice an elderly woman some steps away, in front of me, and she clearly seems lost. Asking other travelers if she is standing at the right queue, when is the boarding starting, if she needs to wait aside, all this trying hard with her limited English among people who are reluctant to give her anything but a bare and minimum sign of reply nodding ‘no, yes, there’. I approach her and gently explain to her what to do, also help her pick up her boarding pass that fell on the floor, collect her bags and accompany her towards the bus that will take us to the plane. As we hop on the bus, I spot and offer her an empty seat, which she takes, her eyes with gratitude as she looks at me… just before she turns and tells me. ‘Don’t be too kind, my girl’.

And that puzzles me. Is it that she is used to being ignored so many times especially as an elder woman, that now a different approach seems to be ‘too much’? Is it that in these frenetic rhythms and lifestyles we are operating in no one has five minutes for anyone else anymore? Is it that she warns me against being ‘taken advantage of’ just if I choose to be nice?

Keanu Reeves said it best: ‘I don’t want to be part of a world where being kind is a weakness’. Kindness, especially to those who need us, is our duty, and what defines us as humans.

I will not give it up.

#kindness #werisebyliftingothers