the goodness of humanity

I believe in the goodness of humanity.

Listen to morning radio. Watch the evening news. Scan the daily paper, and one is bound to find stories of tragedy, injustice, and ignorance. “Bystander Shot in Gas Station Robbery.” “Family Forced to Live on Streets after Father Loses Job.” Everywhere we turn, we are reminded of man’s pitiful fall from grace. Yet, if we are willing to pay attention…if we are willing to walk through our daily lives with both eyes open and our ears unplugged (from iPods and cell phones), we just might notice the countless, random acts of kindness all around, those simple gestures that repeatedly restore my faith in humanity.

I knew a boy in college who never wore a coat. Oh, he had a coat. He had several coats actually, but he couldn’t keep a coat for more than a couple weeks. Not because he lost them. His mother told me one afternoon that he just simply gave them away. He gave them to fellow students who hadn’t thought to bring one from home. He gave them to strangers he met on the street. He gave them to people in need. And while this seems a bit extreme, even to me, I could not help but admire him. He was, indeed, his “brother’s keeper.”

I should also mention the boy dressed like a “gang banger” who offered up his seat on the train so that my husband might sit next to me, a tourist in a “strange, new city.” Or the man at the gas station who paid for my son’s Snapple because I’d forgotten my wallet when packing the diaper bag. And I will never forget the gentleman dressed in his blue, mechanic’s uniform who changed my tire in the rain, refusing to let me finish what I had already started. These are the types of stories that should be on the news. These are the tidbits I want to hear on talk radio. For some warped reason, though, it’s the crime that sells…which is really a shame if we think about it. What good can come from thirty minutes of heartache and theft? Now consider the alternative. What good can come from kindness?

If “ignorance breeds ignorance,” couldn’t kindness breed kindness?

I believe in the goodness of humanity because I have experienced it. I have known a helping hand. I have met a generous spirit. Each of these offered acts spontaneous, each without expectation of return.