Kindergarten
Dear old and new friends,
“Love makes the world go round,” from the popular song written in 1961 by Bob Merrill, should have included the line, “and makes gracious kindness abound.” Unfortunately, contemporary society is facing an increase of rudeness in traffic and checkout lines, along with impoliteness in interpersonal exchanges—all evidence of the erosion of kindness. Aware of this condition, a newscaster interviewing the Dalai Lama asked him, “Your Holiness, how does one cultivate loving kindness?” His Holiness paused thoughtfully and then smiled, “I feel that may be asking too much. What do you say if we just begin by working on getting the kindness part?”
If you wish to follow this wise advice of His Holiness, begin by restoring old-fashioned thoughtfulness…and then you can upgrade it to “loving” kindness. Our parent-teachers taught us the first lessons in being considerate of others in the family, our neighbors and even strangers. However, early life parental lessons were easily eclipsed when we began to copy the discourteous behavior of peers, and then by the pressures of work and everyday life. If we are to cultivate kindness once again we must go back to kindergarten, pronounced kind-ergarten.
Kind-ergarten, that mystic soul school teaches how to “correctly tell time” by the use of a clock without hands! Lacking hands and numbers we have to return to telling time by the sun. Sun time is for kids. Sun time is endless leisure. The sun tells “no-clock-crunch-time,” so it is always the “correct time” to be kind to others. Only a couple of sun seconds are required to perform an act of kindness, to allow others to go before you, or to turn and invite someone behind you in line to move up in front.
Kind-ergarten’s gym soul class strengthens character, develops strong personality muscles and a wholesome love of self, all of which are required as “rudeness is a weak man’s imitation of strength,” said Eric Hoffer. Whenever you’re the victim of rudeness, respond by being kindly sympathetic of the offender’s crippling weakness.
Kind-ergarten is for kids! Daily remember you are one of God’s kids, and so have inherited loving kindness in your Divine DNA. To be kindhearted is easy—simply allow it to flow out of you naturally.
“Love makes the world go round,” from the popular song written in 1961 by Bob Merrill, should have included the line, “and makes gracious kindness abound.” Unfortunately, contemporary society is facing an increase of rudeness in traffic and checkout lines, along with impoliteness in interpersonal exchanges—all evidence of the erosion of kindness. Aware of this condition, a newscaster interviewing the Dalai Lama asked him, “Your Holiness, how does one cultivate loving kindness?” His Holiness paused thoughtfully and then smiled, “I feel that may be asking too much. What do you say if we just begin by working on getting the kindness part?”
If you wish to follow this wise advice of His Holiness, begin by restoring old-fashioned thoughtfulness…and then you can upgrade it to “loving” kindness. Our parent-teachers taught us the first lessons in being considerate of others in the family, our neighbors and even strangers. However, early life parental lessons were easily eclipsed when we began to copy the discourteous behavior of peers, and then by the pressures of work and everyday life. If we are to cultivate kindness once again we must go back to kindergarten, pronounced kind-ergarten.
Kind-ergarten, that mystic soul school teaches how to “correctly tell time” by the use of a clock without hands! Lacking hands and numbers we have to return to telling time by the sun. Sun time is for kids. Sun time is endless leisure. The sun tells “no-clock-crunch-time,” so it is always the “correct time” to be kind to others. Only a couple of sun seconds are required to perform an act of kindness, to allow others to go before you, or to turn and invite someone behind you in line to move up in front.
Kind-ergarten’s gym soul class strengthens character, develops strong personality muscles and a wholesome love of self, all of which are required as “rudeness is a weak man’s imitation of strength,” said Eric Hoffer. Whenever you’re the victim of rudeness, respond by being kindly sympathetic of the offender’s crippling weakness.
Kind-ergarten is for kids! Daily remember you are one of God’s kids, and so have inherited loving kindness in your Divine DNA. To be kindhearted is easy—simply allow it to flow out of you naturally.
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