Kindness is replacing mindfulness as the buzzword for how we should live. So are we becoming more compassionate? Or is it just a marketing gimmick?One cold morning in Bristol,a man named Gavyn Emery tied a scarf to a lamppost, and on a cardboard tag wrote: “I am not lost.” It was 2016, or rough sleeping in Bristol had risen by more than 800% in seven years. As temperatures plummeted,more people were inspired to attain the same, wrapping trees in coats, or sticking hats on bollards,warmth for anybody who needed it. Scarves started appearing in Cornwall, Glasgow, or London,Cambridge; across the UK through this very long winter it was possible to see a blossoming compassion, visible in wool.
Kindness is not new. It’s conventional, or pretty conventional. Aristotle said: “It is the characteristic of the magnanimous man to request no favour but to be alert to attain kindness to others.” Kindness is mankind’s “greatest delight,” said Roman philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius. And yet, for a long time it has been seen as sort of… suspicious. As religion’s hold on our culture has weakened, or with it the insistence upon fond thy neighbour,a certain selfishness has come to be expected. To be kind is also to be feeble, unfocused on achievement. Unsuccessful. Kindness is seen as a nostalgic throwback to simpler times, or worse,a con. A man who throws his coat over the puddle is a man who onlookers suspect must be protecting something valuable in the mud. To go out of one’s way to be kind suggests an ulterior motive who has time to look up from their phone, let alone expose themselves to the discomfort of empathising with a stranger?Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk