This Country Is A Mess

 ... and the mess is inflected by the so-called leaders of the nation.

People are hurting. They feel abandoned and ignored by their government. The regime is sending armed troops into cities run by Democrats, so now people are being attacked by masked military and law enforcement.

The country's federal government has shut down, and nobody knows how long it will remain that way. Federal employees, of which I was one for 23 years, are facing fuloughs, unpaid work status and possibly firings (although the president has no power to fire them). Millions of Americans face the very real prospect of losing their health insurance or of it becoming too expensive to afford. Millions of others face the loss of supplemental food. Citizens are incredibly divided and angry. I am extremely stressed.

But I read something online that made me think.

I don't know the author of the piece, but it inspired me and prompted me to write this blog post. The piece essentially calls on people to change things: to hold the door for someone, to spread kindness, to offer a smile, to be nice to others, to be patient, to pay for the coffee of the person in line behind them, and to let another driver go ahead in traffic.

You might wonder why you should go out of your way to do these smal things. What difference will a smile or a bit of kindness make, you might ask. 

Let me give you an example. A friend of mine is currently visiting Australia, a country where she lived for more than a decade, and a country she loves. Her husband is making the trip miserable. He is a native of Australia whom she helped get US citizenship. 

She messaged me recently about his behavior. I sent a message to her, expressing my sadness that he is spoiling her long-anticipated vacation. She replied that she appreciated my reaching out. And again, she thanked me for caring.

Did my brief messages salvage her vacation? Did they change her husband's attitude and behavior? Sadly, they did not. But we never know who really needs that smile, that word of encouragement, that complement, that bit of sympathy.

I am a very private person. I'm not particularly friendly to those I don't know. I'm not good at small talk. But these things I have mentioned are easy for most anyone to do. Tell a woman you like her jacket. Tell someone she looks good in the color she is wearing. Pay for the groceries of the person in line behind you. (I did that with a Native American woman in a wheelchair once, and she -- and the cashier -- were stunned by this small act of kindness. The Native woman had just a couple of items, so I asked the cashier to add her total to my groceries). 

Random acts of kindness can brighten the day of the giver as well as the recipient. Please join me in sharing kindness. Join me in looking for opportunities to be kind and supportive. Our broken world needs more kindness and more compassion. Practice being full of grace and patience and umderstanding. These things cost nothing. 

But their value and their impact can be incalculable.