Have a Kindly New Year

Dec, 2013

Have a Kindly New Year

I lecture my kids a lot. I know because they tell me so. In my defense, my lectures are just variations on three simple themes: 

Be Alert

Be Kind

Be Brave

Previously, I spoke 0n Alertness. This time: Kindness.

When my daughter began dating, I said that to get her boyfriend's true measure, watch how he treats not her, but others. This was also my indirect way of telling her to be kind by default, that kindness isn't something to be switched on and off. Indirect, because better that she figure it out herself, as any direct advice to a teenager gets ignored.

This echos my mother's advice to me. A devout Hindu who gave a respectful nod to Buddha, Yahweh and Allah (after all, to a Hindu, what's an extra three deities), she posited that god lives in each of us and so compassion is the only way to treat all creatures.

Even as an atheist, this made sense to me. After all, we are all made of the same stardust. Each of us, a child of the universe, linked.

I read about Quantum Entanglement. Heady stuff. Take two quantum particles. Even if they are light years apart, the mere act of measuring one, instantaneously changes the state of the other. More bizarre, is that these two particles don't even have to exist at the same time to be entangled. For the purposes of this message, I take from this that we are all kindred, regardless of distance and time.

So let us spread kindness, and trust that all else will be well in our own little worlds.

Have a kindly New Year.