###

“My religion is kindness.”

— Dalai Lama

###

You don’t have to go far to learn what unkindness looks like — just read LoCO for a week or two:

• Students living in their vehicles on campus (who can’t afford tuition and rent) evicted at short notice from a CPH parking lot;
• Sheriff Honsal’s point-blank refusal to support a dead inmate’s wishes to donate his organs (Honsal later relented after a media storm of outrage, but the delay may have eliminated potential recipients);
• Theft of a truckload of Toys for Tots;
• Kids’ mental health programs about to curtailed statewide (including Humboldt) — that’s in rich California, which, were it a sovereign nation, would rank as the world’s fifth largest economy;
• Newly-released condors sickened by ingesting illegal lead ammunition;
• Repeated vandalism of Arcata’s Jardin Santuario;
• Heartless naysayers attempting to stop low-income housing on a few of Eureka’s underutilized parking lots (under the banner of “Housing for All”!!!)
• Local bigots quoting ancient scripture to justify their fear of gays;
• … and on and on.

Sigh.

Long ago, I had a cathartic experience during a long and intense retreat, when it came to me that only One Thing Really Mattered: compassion. I went around for the next several weeks telling anyone who would listen to me, “It’s ALL about compassion!”

After a month or so of this, I wasn’t quite sure what I meant, but I was sure it meant something — or why would I have been so blown away with the original incident? Later, in my reading, I stumbled on a couple of stories that reminded me. In Joan Tollifson’s gutsy book on her spiritual/life/love journey Bare-Bones Meditation, she relates a late-night talk with a fellow resident at her meditation center:

I asked Paul if he feels he’s still growing here, since he often seemed unhappy and talks frequently of leaving, and he says he doesn’t think in terms of growth. All that personal fulfillment and development stuff isn’t relevant, he says, all that matters is kindness.

Kindness towards strangers probably isn’t in our genes — a million years ago, survival depended on cooperating with one’s fellow tribal members and competing with those of neighboring tribes. And it wasn’t a virtue I grew up with, in post-war Britain, where food rationing and the loss of the countries ill-gotten colonies was the order of the day. For me, kindness for those beyond my immediate circle came late in the game, but a love of travel and encounters with many (kind!) mentors helped. Kindness doesn’t always come easy or naturally, but it’s worth the effort. Even if I’m not feeling kind, I can still act kind.