Editorial: Slip kindness on like a comfy sweater
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Some things shouldn’t need a reminder.
Don’t speed through a work zone. Don’t deliver a bomb threat to a school. Don’t drive the wrong way down a one-way street.
But sometimes we need a gentle prod — like a mom nudging a kid to prompt a “please” and “thank you.”
That is what World Kindness Day is. It’s a quiet reminder that a little caring has the capacity to go a long way.
Here in the backyard of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, one might think that World Kindness Day is all about Fred Rogers, the way Santa is attached to Christmas or Cupid flies in at Valentine’s Day. Public broadcasting station WQED has scheduled its Cardigan Day — in celebration of everyone’s favorite neighbor and his comfy sweaters — to coincide.
But just like there is more to Christmas than an elderly gift-giver in a flying sleigh and Valentine’s Day didn’t start with an arrow-shooting cherub, there is a reason to look beyond the cardigans.
World Kindness Day is an international observation. It is in its 21st year. Non-governmental organizations in countries all over the world came together and started it as a way to push the very simple idea that kindness is as necessary to the human condition as air and water.
The world is plagued by problems like violence and war, poverty and sickness, pollution and political divides. While there are lots of questions about how to fix those giant wounds, a little kindness applied like a kiss on a skinned knee could help us start healing the small bruises and who knows where that could lead.
What if, for just one day, we looked at every choice through the lens of caring? What if, for 24 hours, we made choices that were kinder to the planet, to our communities and, yes, to our neighbors?
Maybe a cardigan is just a gimmicky branding exercise. Could be. But maybe it might be that small parental nudge, urging us to stop and think for a moment and do what we know is right.
Wouldn’t that be kind of nice?