Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

The Kindness of Strangers

This morning I was free-flowing to the prompt, “What will I miss when I die?” The prompt asked to make a list and choose one item from among the list. Although my list had taken several spiral note-book pages tightly written, my choice was immediate: the kindness of strangers.

It is expected and normal, though sometimes not possible, for the family members and friends to be kind to each other, to encourage one another with a smile, a gift, or a pat on the back. But when that kindness comes from total strangers with no relationship or give-and-take ties attached, that kindness is more valuable to me. Family and friends honor your existence because of your ties to them, but a stranger honors you because you exist, period.

Because you exist. Isn’t that what it is all about? You exist, you matter.

Those kind strangers do not care whether you are Mother Theresa or Jack the Ripper. How can anything else be more valuable than that?

What can be more valuable when a complete stranger you have never met before and possibly you’ll never meet again smiles at you in the baking goods isle in the supermarket; or when you are lost in a strange city, one of the locals shows you the way; or when a farmer waves at you looking up from his seat in his tractor while you drive by; or when someone let’s you pass in front of him in a line only because you look old and tired or maybe you have one item of purchase compared to his many. This list could be endless.

The warmth I feel from those smiles, kind words, and small gestures is endless, too. Definitely, I’ll miss the kindness of strangers the most.