Kindness, Above All Things

Written by Shaun Kelly, a three-decades-plus teacher and resident of Greenwich

Recently, when I was recovering from a bout of Covid that hit me like a nor’easter, I had a chance to catch my breath for once. The irony was that I came down with a mild case of the coronavirus on the day of our school’s spring vacation. (Nice timing, Teach). As I slowly recovered and tried to keep my wits about me, I came to the conclusion that the antecedent of pain – kindness – might just be the abiding answer to the avalanche of problems we face collectively and individually.

Like you folks, I have observed that millions and millions of people have been swallowed up by the enduring anxiety that has assaulted our culture for the past two years plus. The irony, of course, is it has often been masked in braggadocio or it’s-all-about-meism. We have lost the notion that human dignity is a virtue without borders and comes without compromise as it is draped in goodwill and empathy. Sadly, in the pain that all of us have experienced as a nation – the coronavirus and the threat to our democracy – gratitude, grace, and humility seem to have disappeared like a summer fog.

I recently conversed with a veteran teacher at a local school who said that she used to receive 30-40 handwritten thank you notes from students and teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week. This year, she received one such note. When I recently held the door at Dunkin Donuts for a young man, he exclaimed, “Thank you! People don’t seem to do that to one another these days!”

Yes, we, YOU can be the solution and not the problem, and it starts with such minute acts of decency as I exhibited when I opened up the door for a stranger at Dunkin Donuts. But we could – especially if we remembered that everyone is on their personal liferafts for survival in a world gone amuck. After all. it’s the unexpected gestures that bring about the most pleasure in life. As many great philosophers have written over the past three millennia, you have no idea what burdens people carry in life – and they probably have more on their plate than you have.

In the end, if you care and you are kind, then you can truly extinguish someone’s melancholy with a burst of light that can cast away the darkness.