On Kindness
I am not often this sappy. You get one chance to see my soft side and that's probably it for the year, okay? I started thinking about this (which is not actually as rare as you might think) because someone thanked me for being "really kind" not so long ago. Had I scooped this person out of the path of a car? No. Had I saved this person from drowning? No. Had I pulled this person to safety after being about to fall off a cliff? No. So what had I actually done? In actual fact, this super amazing kind thing that I'd done was send this person some words of support as said person was struggling through a severe depressive episode. I consider that basic decency more than anything else, but that might reflect what I consider to be really kind - which requires doing a supererogatory act (in layperson's terms, something that is above and beyond what is necessary). I do not consider kindness above and beyond what is necessary, because firstly it's a ve...