It May Be That Kindness is Our Best Audition for a Worthier World

Not merely because Henry James said
there were but four rules of life--
be kind be kind be kind be kind—but
because it’s good for the soul, and,
what’s more, for others; it may be
that kindness is our best audition
for a worthier world
-"Be Kind" by Michael Blumenthal

---

Hey there, me here (she says, with a nostalgic nod towards mid-90s children's television). I missed last week because we dared to go to a toddler's birthday party and almost immediately succumbed to norovirus, which kind of made the whole week a wash. Meanwhile, my niece waited until the last possible moment to skip her curtain call (she is, at time of writing, still camped out and not yet earthside), our rent situation is in a little bit of upheaval that may require a summertime move, and everything feels painfully, miserably liminal.

More than once this week, I've caught myself feeling cranky and judgmental. Although I've been gentle with myself (everybody's gonna be a little grumpy in these circumstances, self!) it's just not the way I like to be. I don't like being angry at the people around me, whether it's the neighbors playing their music a little too loud or other drivers moving in ways that are not actually illegal but still, I'd rather they didn't. I don't like being short-tempered and impatient. It's not me.

As a rule, I find that the best way to combat these feelings is to take as much time as I can to exist in analog, to maximize time with the people in my actual proximity and minimize time spent with the world at large. By shrinking my space for a minute, I can catch my breath and remind myself of why it makes me so uncomfortable to be so impatient with people. 

So that's what I'm doing this week. I'm trying to catch up on my (very very late) article for Genretastic, but otherwise I'm ducking offline. Here are last week's links, because I'd already gathered them before I got sick, and I'll see you in May, bright and early.

All the best, and may you find your own kind places.