JOIN USI think what the whole world needs now is kindness, not just super intelligence and immense wealth to boast of.
We all teach our children to become successful, to become rich, to become famous, etc, but it is parents’ primary duty to teach them to be kind first, before becoming anything else, because the world needs kindness in its entirety right now.
The ethics quotient seems to be at the lowest in people generally, with baser traits like avarice, selfishness, cruelty thriving and flourishing rapidly in minds. Kindness gives a congenial perspective, an overall feelings of benignity in personality, to understand and see the world around with a generous, compassionate, forgiving attitude.
An Indonesian judge by the name Marzuki was sitting in judgement of an old lady who pleaded guilty of stealing some tapioca from a plantation. In her defence, the old lady admitted to the judge that she was indeed guilty of the crime because she was poor and her son was sick while her grandchild was hungry. The plantation manager insisted that she be punished as a deterrent to others. The judge going through the documents then looked up and said to the old lady, “I’m sorry, but I cannot make any exception to the law and you must be punished accordingly.”
The old lady was fined Rp 1 million (USD 100) and if she could not pay the fine then she will be jailed for 2 1/2 years as demanded by the law. She wept as she could not pay the fine.The judge then took her hat and put in Rp.100,000 into the hat and said, “In the name of justice, I fine all present in the court @ Rp 50,000 (USD 5.50) each as dwellers of this city for letting a child starve until her grandmother is compelled to steal to feed her grandchild. The Registrar will now collect the fines from all present.”
The Court managed to collect Rp 3.5 million (USD 350), including the fine collected from the plantation manager, whereby the fine was paid off and the rest was given to the old lady! This episode of deep compassion for the other person sprang from the feelings of kindness from within the heart – how one’s perspective and understanding changes when thoughts of kindness pervade the mind is clearly seen in this example.
When each and every individual develops a sense of gratitude for what they have, they will develop a sense of kindness and empathy towards those who do not have – the ‘have-nots’. For kindness to take deep roots in the psyche, the seeds must be sown in childhood days, when the soil is fertile, fresh and receptive. Then, automatically thinking kindly about others, acting kindly towards others will become a second nature – it will become an automatic response, not an artificial affected act.
When each family contributes that way by raising kind and gentle children, the community, the country, the whole world will become a safer and saner place which everybody wants to live in without facing daily atrocities of unkindness and sadism.