Kindness

A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.
Joseph Joubert

Consciously or unconsciously, most of us run around judging the value of other people based on what we feel we are getting from them. It is as though other people were put on earth to serve us, and when they fail to do that effectively we want no part of them. We make freinds with, and fall in love with, those people who do things that make us happy, and say things that we agree with. And people who do things that make us unhappy or say things we don't agree with, we avoid like the plague.

But other people are not put on earth to serve us. They have their own purpose in life, their own pathway to follow. They have their own ideas based on their own experiences, which might be vastly different from ours. It has been said that "common sense" is only common to people with a common point of view (who see things the same way).

But none of that makes other people less worthy of our love. We are all trying our best to succeed in this world based on the knowledge and experience, and talents and weaknesses, that we have been given. All human beings are worthy of our love, whether they are a homeless person on the streets or the Queen. Everyone has a valid story to tell; and if they were all the same then we'd have nothing to learn from each other.

A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve. If someone is very rude to you, for example, instead of hating him for being a jerk realize that he may be rude because he has had a bad morning; perhaps his wife left him, or his child is in trouble, or he has too many bills to pay. It has been said that the worse a person is behaving, the more kindness he needs from you. It indicates that he is hurt; and when you think about it, you know that it is when you are hurt that you need kindness the most. Other people are the same. Just as with love, it is easy to be kind to someone who is being nice to you. Real love and kindness is forged when you can love someone who is not behaving well towards you.