August 22, 2010

I’ve been searching the web for examples of human kindness trying to find either a source of many great examples to follow or an approach to encourage kindness on this website. In yesterday’s post I talked about the difference between doers, receivers, and reporters. Having now read several approaches on kindness I want to add a fourth dimension – observers – and link it to reporters. More than that, I’m sensing a pattern in what I read that makes me think observer/reporters might be just the thing.

I have read a lot of stories now from “doers.” My dominant feeling – the overwhelming majority of cases – was that these people did something notable that moved them and that they wanted to share that experience and encourage others to do the same. That’s what I am aiming at ultimately here as well. But my reading of their stories left me at “notable” and didn’t get me to “inspired.” Notable makes me appreciate that person, inspired gets me to do the same thing or something similar.

I’m not sure the “doer” can inspire that. I am confident a “receiver” can, but being on the receiving end of kindness (sadly) happens so rarely and – if it was truly random – a receiver isn’t wired to report about it.

A second challenge is the complexity of many of the things I read. If there is any planning involved it is no longer random. I’m not saying it has to be random to be good, but I think there is something wonderful about the spontaneous, and I am certainly saying I think it needs to be simple, maybe something that has no more than one step to accomplish. Here are a couple of examples:

(I’ve shared this before.) My back fence neighbor Bill is 82 and has one of those little hotdog dogs named Newton. Bill walks Newton {I stand corrected: Newton walks Bill.} several times a day and most often goes around the block and past our house. But the first trip of the morning is a clear routine and Bill & Newton are on a mission.

Bill gets up around 5 and waits until he sees the newspaper delivery person drive by throwing papers out the window and then they leave.  My newspaper can be anywhere given the challenge of drive-by-papering – it’s hard to drive 60 down a neighborhood street and throw out the window with accuracy. Anyway, every morning, Bill & Newton find our paper (along with the papers of most of our neighbors) and lean them against the front door so we neither need to look for it or even put on our shoes to fetch it. 

Bill’s secondary paper delivery gives him something to do, but it does much more than that. It reminds ALL of us first thing EVERY DAY that we live in a NEIGHBORHOOD of people who look out for each other and care about each other.  It also lets me know that, for another day, I am fortunate to still have Bill & Newton as neighbors.

Here’s another example – not a story, just a one-step act of kindness that can be done on the spur of the moment. All you need is a plastic bag from the grocery store or pharmacy. And all you do is take a walk with it empty and fill it with liter and throw it away when you finish the walk.

Inspired by either story?  That is the point.

So I keep amending what I think might work. Thanks for your patience. How can I motivate you to OBSERVE life around you either for the things that people are already doing that would be easily repeated – inspiring - or specific instances of the Bill’s in the world? And then how do I inspire you to REPORT it here so we can inspire more simple acts of community kindness?