In my opinion, the value of kindness and a friendly disposition are highly underestimated these days. A simple smile goes a long way. What I found particularly interesting is that our society does not do much to promote kindness. In fact, we live in a society where it is the norm to not even acknowledge others. I find that I am always surprised when someone who walks past me happens to flash me a smile, says hi, or even acknowledge my presence.
How is it that we can walk through a facility, with hundreds of people, literally bump into one another and not so much as even look them in the eye? We are in essence, all alone together. Maybe if we stop dehumanizing people and acknowledge them we would create a more peaceful and pleasant existence, which could lead to an increase in kindness and promote humanitarianism from a basic elementary level!
You bring up a really good point in this post. The fact that we don't acknowledge each other as human beings. If a stranger smiles or even greets someone, we tend to see that person as a "creep" or wonder to ourselves if we know that person (otherwise they wouldn't be saying hello) Another thing that we tend to do to people who we DO know is the "Hi, how are you?" When we say this, we do it out of courtesy and we don't really care about how the person really is or how they're feeling. It's just an automatic greeting and the expected response is always, "fine." I know that we all live busy lives and it is probably part of the reason why we live this way but maybe if we started making little changes such as acknowledging others, and not being so caught up in our own lives then we'd have a chance to increase kindness in our communities,
ReplyDeleteI really like the point you make in this post. You're very right when you say a smile goes a long way. There have been many times when I've had a bad day and someone simply smiles, and my day turns a little brighter. There's already enough people in the world who are mean, so when someone is kind, it really stands out. If only people were even slightly kinder, the world really would be a better place.
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