“My religion is very simple. My religion is Kindness” – Dalai Lama
I’ve been sad lately. There is so much sadness and hate in the world today. I don’t think I have seen so much hate and anger in all of my 57 years. It breaks my heart.
Forgetting about all the “big” things going on right now – Ukraine, LBGTQ rights, racism; the way we have been treating each other has been distressing.
In the beginning, when the pandemic first hit, we saw kindness spread all over the world. People were singing together on the balconies in Italy and New Yorkers were clapping outside fire escapes offering gratitude for the health care workers beaten and tired from all the illness and death. We learned that amid the fear, there was community, love, support, and hope.
I remember purposely ordering take-out from local restaurants in order to ensure that their business was able to sustain the lockdowns. Now we are watching people treating restaurant workers with disdain and talking to them in a way I would not talk to my worst enemy. I belong to a Facebook food group and it amazes me the way people treat and complain about food servers and then we are shocked when restaurants are short-staffed. I read today about a diner in Wisconsin that closed its doors temporarily due to the rudeness to its staff. Being short-staffed as it is and then seeing how her working employees were being treated took the owner over the edge and she closed her doors.
Hate crimes are at an all-time high and teachers are leaving the profession they have worked at for years because of the way they are being not only treated but talked about by parents while the behavior of students has gotten out of control.
We are in the middle (and yes we are still in it) of a global pandemic. There is not one person reading my blog that in some way has not been affected. We are all in this together. This is not just happening in one city, one state, or one country; this is a worldwide global pandemic. We are only going to survive if we all work together.
My school recently lifted our mask mandate. Masks are no longer required in my school but are optional. We asked our students to be kind to each other. A majority of kids are still wearing them, some are not but whatever their choice we are to remember to not judge or criticize each other. I can’t say 100% but I have not seen any kids belittling other students for their choices. As adults, why can we not be the same way? Some people still believe covid is not real. Others who have seen firsthand the effects of this disease take it pretty seriously. As a person who has had a number of health crises, I take it very seriously. As hard as I try, I am not going to convince someone else to feel the way I do. However, no matter what you feel, we need to come together. We need to work with each other, it is the only way we are going to make it through.
The next time you go out to dinner and the service is a little slow remember how blessed you are to be able to afford to go out to dinner. When waiting a little longer than usual for your server to come to you, smile and tell them “thank you for showing up today, I know you are working as fast as you can.” Don’t be rude because you had to wait.
When you go into a department store and the line is long and you can’t seem to find someone to help you, don’t yell or complain to the cashier. They showed up to work. Think how blessed you are to have money to buy clothing or that you have enough money to put food in your fridge, not everyone does.
Let’s make a pact to realize how totally blessed we are. I know it sounds corny but we are not sleeping on a floor with no food and blankets in a shelter while our Country is being bombed. When I look at the price of gasoline and my heart does a little skip I know how lucky I am to afford a car. I’m one of the lucky ones!
Take a step back before you go to belittle or demean someone working to serve you. Now that the masks are off, smile at the person holding the door while you are going in to pick up your coffee. Say Good Morning or Have a nice day.
We have been through a trauma, it has been an unbelievable hard couple of years. We are still standing, maybe a little bruised or damaged but standing. So the next time you go out for breakfast and it is taking a little longer than you would like, when the server finally brings it to you, remember to add a side of kindness.
Accidental Harmony 