creating a society full of kindness(700 words)
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Creating a society full of kindness.....
If kindness is the act of being kind as defined by the Oxford dictionary, it means "caring about others; gentle, friendly and generous". However, I believe that the definition can be extended and better encompassed by the Australian Kindness Movement which states "an act of kindness is a message from one heart to another, an act of love, an unspoken "I care" statement". Kindness, when allowed to flourish, is an all pervasive, all transcending, flowing current which sustains mankind and which is absolutely fundamental within our society and world.
If we are to establish the value of kindness, then we must find a scale on which to measure it. In the most logical way to deduct the value of something, then let us use the scale which is most commonly called upon in our society, cost. Kindness can cost a pound put towards helping a homeless person to stay in a shelter for the night, a fifty pound donation towards the aid of the distressed and displaced flood victims in Pakistan, or the sum of a cheque written to help a friend in need. However, a kind word is free, as is sharing your umbrella in the rain, or stopping to ask someone if they are lost and need help. At this point it is essential to establish that a true act of kindness is something that is done without expectation of something in return- lest it be confused for something else. For example, at a glance, it seems that kindness is practiced throughout the animal kingdom widely and regularly. Take the chimpanzee that spends hours of its day grooming others around it, something which seems like a kind and selfless act. However, this is done not fully out of kindness, but rather in the expectation that it will be groomed in turn and also to affirm its position in the hierarchy of the troupe. Therefore, from the purely evolutionary perspective kind acts in the animal kingdom can more realistically be viewed as reciprocity, a phenomenon found in all social animals whereby individuals perform altruistic acts borne of the selfish calculation that these will come to benefit themselves in some way in the future. This is what differentiates their societies, and their ability to be kind from ours, because it is we who have the ability to carry out truly pure and generous acts of kindness.
The value of kindness can also be discussed in terms of time; the two minutes that it takes to help somebody carry their pushchair up the stairs at the train station, the thirty minutes a month where you volunteer to visit a residential care home and chat to an elderly person who is lonely, or the month spent sharing your flat with a distant cousin who is down on their luck. But this scale is also insufficient, as the time taken to carry out a kind act is only a small part of the overall duration of its effect. For example, a smile takes only a moment, but could change somebody's mood for the whole day. A few words of encouragement or reassurance can stay with a person and continue to help them to overcome difficulties for many years after they were spoken. Indeed it could be argued that the effects of certain kind acts can continue indefinitely.
Escaping the more common scales like time and money, perhaps intention could be suggested as a more appropriate gauge for the value of kind acts. Think for example of the hideous winter 1954 style woollen jumper that you receive every year from your grandmother, too hideous to ever wear outside the house, and too itchy to be of use inside. Although your grandma has abundant also given. However once again, this is too simple a comparison. Idioms such as 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions' highlight the fact that intentions are not enough; intending to be a kind person means very little without backing up your intentions with actions.
It is therefore, not appropriate to try and measure kindness at all. It is far too large and pervasive a thing in the lives of people to be pinned down on some sort of pseudo-numerical scale of 'one-to-kind'. The significance of an act of kindness is subjective rather than objective- it might mean nothing to one person while profoundly affecting another. Following logically on from this, in finding no scale on which to judge kindness, we should perhaps view any one act of kindness as being able to stand along side any other in terms of importance. Each kind act is simply an act of humanity and is as valid as any other in terms of its contribution to fellow creatures and the world that we live in. In our ability to be kind, we are all equal.