Kindness is under our feet

The news we read makes us think kindness is not common or that kindness is out of vogue. But kindness is all around us. It sustains us. It is the ground we stand on.

If I’m every feeling dejected or beginning to believe the news – if I ever truly believe kindness is out of vogue I do a very simple spiritual practice. I walk. And I look at the elements of kindness that surround me. I look at all the output of all the good intentioned workers who have made the community and infrastructure around me.

Quite consciously I feel the sidewalk under my feet. I feel the cement and think about the mine workers that labored to get the materials that were combined to make cement. I think of all those involved in the supply chain. All those that developed the subcomponent parts of that supply chain. Conveyer belts, ships, computer infrastructure that enable gross materials to be transported to ultimately be combined. The storage facilities. All of those involved in building those storage facilities. I think of the elected officials and city workers who allocated the money, completed the zoning ordinances, designed the neighborhoods, wrote the contracts, selected the suppliers and supervised the work. I think of the construction team that built the sidewalks.

Then I get to a street and see the asphalt and a stop sign. The same materials process. And a city planner who determined how autos and pedestrians can co-exist. And a car approaches the crosswalk at the same time I arrive, the driver stopping to allow me to pass. The stopping enabled by automotive engineers, the material supply chain, tires and brakes. And the kindness of 99% of drivers who drive with caution.

Good will is wrapped up in the infrastructure around us. Human-formed, human-engineered, human-built well-intentioned kindness that surrounds each of us supports life and makes our community. Communities are formed with kindness. All of the people who work, unnoticed, unseen, yet persistently and faithfully create life for us.

In contrast to bad news, we see and hear this infrastructure of faithfulness, competence and kindness. The persistent effort of others is the good news that keeps us going. We are sustained with kindness.