Stilettos, Stoli & Scribbles ~ Served With A Twist

Good morning and Happy Monday all.

Did you know that yesterday, November 13, was World Kindness Day? I didn’t.  Apparently, it’s been a thing since 1998 when the World Kindness Movement coalesced into a formal organization with over 25 member nations including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, India, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Romania, Scotland, South Korea,Switzerland,Thailand, United Arab Emerites, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States.

The mission of the WKM is to inspire individuals towards greater kindness and to connect nations to create a kinder world.

Kindness Movement

Promoting a Kinder World

Enabling Countries

Inspire Kindness

Connect Nations

It’s not surprising to me that we need a day designated to remind people to be kind, which is to be nothing more or less than friendly, generous, and considerate to one another, but I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that I hadn’t even heard about it until it was over.  That’s what I get for attempting to cut back a bit on my social media interaction. I miss the good stuff as well as the bad. Yesterday, my newsfeeds and timelines actually contained some love and light mixed in with the gloom and doom. That’s refreshing even on a good day.

Here’s the thing. No matter what else I do, or path I take, before I can do anything for anyone, I have to do me. I am responsible for the words of my voice and for the words that I let fly from my fingertips.  I have to choose kindness.

I’m not suggesting complacency or that we stop striving to become better People (with a capital P), but, as King Leonidas* opined,

There’s no reason we can’t be civil.

Or maybe it’s as simple as the Golden Rule:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Easy to say, not so easy to do.

Maybe this will make it clearer –  one of the basic tenets of most religious philosophy:

Hate the sin, love the sinner.

There are certainly degrees, but my point is that no matter what you perceive “sin” to be, aren’t people, especially the people closest to you, more important?

I promise you that I’m not on the verge of any sort of political rant. I say all of this to say that the people I loved last week are still the people I love this week.  Anything else is up to me.

And how are you this autumn Monday? Any random acts of kindness you’ve seen, done or been the recipient of that you’d like to share?

See you Saturday with part two of “Foolish Notion“. In the meantime, have a great week.

*at least as embodied by Gerard Butler – whose birthday, by the way was also yesterday. Coincidence? Probably – in Zack Snyder’s “300”.