Coffee with Moe - Spring_2022s

ABOUT KINDNESS
I’ve been thinking.
What sort of a world do you think we’d live in, if instead of leading into most
conversations with:
“What do you do for a living?”
Instead we asked:
“What kindness do you bring to the world?”
I think it’s the sort of conversational shift that could change everything.
Just think about it.
A conversation that started with kindness, would set the tone for a value-based
connection and would allow us to proudly acknowledge the tangible ways we are
all actually living out our values
Instead of jockeying to impress people with an enviable job description, we’d all
start to focus on being the change we want to see. The sage words of Mahatma
Gandhi would stop being a platitude and start resonating in our thoughts, actions
and interactions.
Our views regarding work might shift enough that we might stop valuing the idea
of being our job’s unsung hero of overtime, a glorified busy burn-out or a casualty
of the endless hustle. Instead our focus might land squarely on who and what
we deeply believe matters. It might bring our attention to how we have and can
impact the people, places and things around us.
Sure we’d still have to pay the bills, feed our families and pay our taxes, but how
we chose to do that would be a footnote in our life’s story, instead of the headline
our hopes and dreams have been buried under.
Kindness was once believed to be a sign of emotional weakness. This was not
based on any science, but on the fact that caregivers were traditionally women.
Thankfully, years of actual scientific research has proven that quite the opposite is
actually true.
cont’d