This I Believe- Kindness is the Key

I want you to think- think about the last time that you did something kind for a complete stranger. Now think about the last time that a stranger did something nice for you. Honestly, I can’t think of one. I wasn’t able to until I met Lynda. Lynda taught me the most important lesson of my life. After being diagnosed with Primary Pulmonary Hypertension, a life-threatening disease, at the age of 13, Lynda found that random acts of kindness were the only way to make it through her troubles. I learned that the physically weaker she was, the more she would do for others. This immense selflessness gave her the emotional strength to keep on going. This strength got her through the equivalent of two double lung heart transplants, years and years of pain, and allowed her to live to the age of 31( more than double her predicted lifespan.)

After hearing Lynda’s remarkable story, I began doing random acts of kindness myself. I found it pathetic when parents came up to me, screaming just because I had given their child a Popsicle during the concert at the park that night. “What a freak,” people yelled; they thought that I was trying to poison their children. I found that ridiculous. All too often now, people would rather accuse others of doing wrong than giving them the benefit of the doubt and seeing the good in people. And at the other extreme, I once gave up my spot in line at Target to a woman with 4 screaming children all under the age of 6, up past their bedtime. As she stepped ahead of me, she graciously thanked me and said, “That was the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me.” I was appalled at hearing this, and that was when I realized it. I wondered, if that was the nicest thing that that woman had ever received, then is this really the world that we want to live in? Imagine if not just a few, but everyone did something nice for a stranger just once a year; our world could be a better place. Now, imagine everyone doing multiple nice things a week. Our world could be completely transformed, and because of it, we may one day be able to find world peace. It’s rather hopeful, I know, but I believe it could one day happen. This vision leaves me but with one statement … the power of kindness is immense and the small things can in fact change our world- This I believe.