Kindness is Golden — an opinion in verse
When did acts of kindness become ‘random’?
When did we forget the old ‘Golden Rule’?
Ancients oft sought bloody vengeance
Though gurus warned, ‘Be kind to be cool.’
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Do not, to another, do that which you hate
… to be done unto you,
Said Ancient Egyptian wise men.
Hurt thou not anyone’s hearts,
Said sage Sikhs long ago.
Never impose on others …
what you would not choose for yourself,
Said Confucius in China.
A friend’s another ‘me’,
Said Aristotle the Greek.
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So we’ve known since forever
What we should never do.
Don’t do this, Don’t do that echoed Moses.
But he added new ‘do’s’,
Mitzvah, for the Jews to pursue…
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Mitzvah, with so many commandments,
Ended up with a focus on one –
‘Do many good deeds of a charitable sort
To create a new world built on kindness.’
… It found little worldwide support.
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Treat inferiors as you’d like to be treated by your betters,
Advised Seneca, the Stoic in Rome,
And in a faraway province of that great Roman Empire,
An upstart Jew had a message of his own.
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Do to others as you would have them do …
…unto you, said Jesus.
For his followers the message rang true.
But it took two thousand years
And an ocean of tears
’Til world faiths agreed this ‘Golden Rule’.*
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Yet most of our leaders still fall far short
And make laws that so often are cruel.
Like ‘America First!’ preached the nation
Which invented the World Kindness Day**
And briefly kindness felt fresh, till it sank like the rest
To become the latest ‘in’ marketing tool.
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It should be normal to help one another.
It should be normal to let others go first.
We should not need a webpage of suggestions
And good deeds should be done — unrehearsed.
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No need for publicity proclaiming
How good Missus So and So is.
When did we forget to do good deeds without fanfare?
Without Facebook and Twitter and fizz?
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Perhaps when the pandemic’s over
We’ll all remember once more,
That everyday acts of kindness
Cast a soft golden glow o’er us all;
Should be part of the way that we live.
Not random. Not public. Not broadcast.
And certainly not just for COVID.
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*1993 Declaration Towards a Global Ethic signed by 143 leaders of the world’s major faiths.
** 13th November annually
