Every now and again I scan ‘kindness’ but draw a blank. I appear to have no thoughts on the subject of kindness. I’m not against it, obviously.

Then, I’m sitting outside a café when a passer-by opens her purse, spraying coins over the pavement. Some roll under our table. I get out of my seat and begin to collect them. I notice my companion is talking to the owner of the purse who is feeling embarrassed. ‘It doesn’t matter’, he says, ‘I do it all the time.’ He’s smiling at her, making picking up the coins something they are doing together. And I think ‘That’s what kindness is!’ I’m being helpful, my friend is being kind.

Something to think about.

Jim Read
24 Feb 2022

(C) Danielle Jones (Teale) Dance, Collective IDentity, written by Jim Read