Kindness costs nothing
I try to be kind. I try to listen. Mostly I'm a cranky, hurting, kidney impaired person, who isolates when she can't deal with people. The isolation that others are finding hard to do is not one of my problems. If I isolate too much I will become completely enwrapped in my thoughts. So when I go out of my apartment I try to be kind.
When I was more in the world, there were a lot of people who thought kindness was showing weakness. It is a shallow person who cannot see the hidden depths of a person because they show their kind side. A kind person can defend themselves if they must. They would like to understand why you are attacking first.
Then there is the type of person who takes advantage of kindness.
My kindness can run out. Usually if a person does the same stupid thing over and over and wants me to pick up the pieces forever. My kindness lasts until I realize I am being used as a crutch. I don't mind helping if I see improvement-- even a little self-responsibility.
I have had to work hard to learn how to be kind. I see patterns. Sometimes patterns overwhelm my brain so I don't see people. I had to learn to stop my brain and to listen. I learned to listen before speaking. These are hard lessons that I am still learning.
So why am I thinking of kindness now?
I've watched the world burn since 2019 and I am wondering "where is the kindness?" If the burners had that quality, they wouldn't burn down someone's home or livelihood. They wouldn't threaten people who were not like them. To paint an entire group evil is the road to destruction and the end of community. Without community we devolve to our inner beasts.
I write about werewolves because I know how it feels to deal with two competing interests in my heart-- my civilized side and my beast. I've used the yoke of kindness to temper my beast.
I pray that we can temper what is happening around us so that the beast is not unleashed. The beast we all carry in varying degrees.