A brief comment On Kindness (and a small aside on degrees of seperation)

Of short supply in our world is kindness. Far too few are the people who hold doors open for others, look people in the eyes and truly listen to them, or say “bless you” to an errant sneeze. Too few are the ones who let people off a train before them or through a door in front of them. Not because of some idealistic version of masculinity, but simply to help another person.

Cities are a poor place for kindness. Few pass through their days with a smile or a laugh. Caught up in their daily anxieties and problems, it leads to people being insular.

Yet that makes those moments of kindness all the more precious. The smile shared between strangers on the Tube, the door held open just that tad longer, the quiet “bless you”.

It becomes all too easy for people to live mindlessly, or arguably worse, as though those actions are pointless. There is no time for small reflective moments under ‘hustle culture’.

But I would contend that those moments are far from pointless. They are actually the core of the human experience. They are emblematic of what we owe each other in society. Their only true purpose is to warm the soul, to experience a brief moment of connection and then move on. All the while, one never knows how those small moments of kindness affect one another. In this world we live lives intensely intertwined with one another. The clearest proof of this is the six degrees of separation.

Six degrees of separation is the idea that all people are six or fewer social connections away from each other. In practice, social media websites have shown that this is closer to four degrees. This has cropped up in my own life with many instances of revelation: so-and-so went to school with this new friend, or they are best friends with this person. But the most absurd recently is that someone I went on a date with works for the son of an extremely close family friend. I was two degrees of separation away without ever knowing.

All these moments repeatedly highlight for me the ripple effects that our actions in life have, and first among them are those moments of kindness. I am not one for New Years Resolutions but living with kindness as a goal sure seems like a good one.

Because a life infused with kindness is a life of inherent beauty.