‘Here’s something that made me think,’ said Mumford. ‘It’s from The School of Life website.
We are alarmingly, and almost limitlessly, sensitive, …
hugely unconvinced of our own value, of our right to exist, of our legitimacy, of our claims on love, of our decency and of our capacity to interest anyone in our pains and in our ultimate fate.
‘I don’t agree with that,’ said Mieke. ‘Encouraging people to think about how sensitive they are.’
‘No it’s about realising the vulnerability of everyone else.’
We need kindness so desperately – even its tiniest increments (a door held open, a compliment on a biscuit, a birthday remembered)
because we are, first and foremost, permanently teetering over a precipice of despair and self-loathing.
Mieke made a doubtful sound.
‘Look into your own heart.’ Mumford read on.
The impression of grown-up self-assurance is a sham; inside, just beneath a layer of competence, we are terrified and lost, unsure and un-reassured – and ready to cling avidly on to any sign, however small, that we deserve to continue
We become properly invested in being kind …
… when we realise the power we possess in most situations to rescue another human from self-contempt. We start to be kind too when we realise how much we need others to be kind to us.
It isn’t an obvious thought.
REFERENCE: https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/the-need-for-kindness/
IMAGES: “Old Man Lonely in Park” by Mathew Schwartz via Wikipedia
Girl in Forest, Doug Robichaud 2014, Unsplash via wikimedia
People in city, piqsels
The Absent Answer 
