Thoughts for the Day After

Hi! I had a plan, sort of, for what I was going to do today, but actually I’m deviating from the plan, because I saw something online today that I want to share, because today is actually Martin Luther King’s birthday.

And even though you’re seeing this the next day, or whenever you see it, actually, since it will be up there for however long it’s up there, I just wanted to say this was something from Seth Godin’s blog that I thought was particularly apropos of anybody who writes, markets their writing, markets anything, or just are basic, decent human beings. He talks about three types of kindness. One is what I will call “kindness of politeness”. Saying please. Thank you. The small things you do to acknowledge people Then there’s the “kindness of dignity”, but what I wanted to read to you was the other, the third one:

And there’s another, the kindness of not seeking to maximize short-term personal gain, the kindness of building something for the community, of doing work that matters, of finding a resilient anti-selfish path forward. Kindness isn’t always easy or obvious, because the urgent race to the bottom, to easily measured metrics and to scarcity, can distract us. But bending the arc toward justice, toward dignity and toward connection is our best way forward. Kindness multiplies and it enables possiblity. When we’re of service to people, we have the chance to make things better.

Happy Birthday, Reverend King.