Kindness matters … ( 01 / 24 / 2012 )
Kindness matters … ( 01 / 24 / 2012 )
Yesterday , my supervisor and I had an interesting discussion . As it turns out , he took a bit of an exception to the small acts of Kindness that I was doing for others at work …
Now it wasn ’ t anything big or saintly I was doing for them — just refilling the espresso machine with coffee beans & cleaning up after others every now and then & doing the small favor here or there . It wasn ’ t that big of a deal each time , and the folks for whom I did these deeds seemed to appreciate them ( even though most of the time I did them “ secretly ”).
Still , my supervisor made some good points as to why I shouldn ’ t be Kind in this way :
* He said that each favor I do might be small in & of itself , but that together they made for alot of extra work … And you know , I think he was right about that .
* He said that correcting others ’ mistakes would never force them to “ learn the hard way ” … You know , I think he was right about that as well .
* He said that being Kind to others in this way would lead them to expect the same in the future , and to then be disappointed in me ( or even angry with me ) if I ever stopped helping them in this manner … Once again , his argument seemed to be “ on the money ”.
And yet , even though he made sound arguments , I think I ’ m going to keep being Kind anyway … I think the extra work ( even if it turns out to be alot of extra work ) is time well spent . I think that saving others the pain of “ learning the hard way ” is always a good thing to do ( they will , after all , have many other opportunities in their lives to learn from pain ). And I think that it feels really good to be Kind to another , because I am doing it for THEM — not to receive anything in return ; not to have them like me more or think well of me .
In essence , Kindness may not be the most practical way to deal with people , and yet it IS the only way that brings real Joy …
… And I think that Joy , not practicality , is what we truly need .
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