Thursday, January 13, 2011

Kindness Personified

When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
– Abraham Joshua Heschel



It's not always easy to be kind.

I've always been a person who enjoys gossip.  Who's doing what, and with whom?  Did you SEE what he did?!  Did you hear what she said about him?!

Oh yeah!  LOVE the gossip!

Mostly because talking about other people's lives makes me feel a whole lot better about my own.

And it's FUNNY!  People make me laugh.  Mainly their stupidity.

How kind of me, right?  I know.  It's not at all, not one bit.  Even though I hold my tongue and only vent such things when the subject of my rant isn't around, that doesn't make it any better.

I've been doing a lot less gossiping and felt inspired to make "not gossiping" a new years resolution of sorts this year.

Being clever, and wielding a sharp tongue was always something I was actually proud of.  Cut them down, put them in their place, and leave them speechless.  Piece of cake.

Not so much anymore though.  Now, I listen to those younger than I (and sometimes often older too) throwing around their sarcasm and unconscious observations and I want to simply smack them for their lack of compassion and excess of rudeness.

So it is because of these personal observations that I've resolved to not be that way anymore and instead make a conscious choice to stand in their proverbial shoes for a moment and try to have compassion for them instead of pointing out their obvious "sins" and stroking my own ego with the knowledge.

Maybe I won't be admired by the same group as before, but I can at least admire myself  And if we're truly honest with ourselves, we can see that our own admiration is the only admiration we've ever really been seeking.



Great Titles by Abraham Joshua Heschel


Man Is Not Alone : A Philosophy of Religion I Asked For Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays



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