What is kindness?

I started reading a political book today (never thought I'd see the day) and while it takes about 10 minutes to get through a page, it's actually extremely interesting, thought provoking, and fairly "change inducing." I dont mean my views are currently falling into line with every word he says, but just the way he displays the info, it's hard not to at least rethink the way you've been looking at things.

Take the part about kindness. He opens with the words "Kindness to the wicked is cruelty to the righteous." Not meaning that if you are kind to wicked people you are cruel to the good, but that kindness is, simply put, in the eye of the beholder. The same thing we see as kindness, the wicked see as cruel. What the cruel see as righteous, we see as evil. It all depends on perspective. Is it kind to give a homeless guy a buck if he puts that buck towards more booze? A family member of the man may scold you for supporting his addiction. Is it cruel to charge people more for a service if the money is going to a charity? a business? a political campaign? Who is being charged more?

The answer is that it all depends. We have been brought up to believe that there are cut and dry ways to look at how the world works, but when was the last time that any big decision you made was cut and dry? When you picked a college there were a hundred factors your went through in your mind, there were a hundred outcomes you saw. You made a decision based on what you thought would result in the best outcome. Now that you are done, did you make the right choice? Still, you may not be able to answer that. You don't know what would have happened if you picked the big school, the expensive school, the community college.

What's the point of this you might ask..and I have to admit, I have the majority of the book left to go, but as of now, it comes down to this; Don't accept guarantees, they don't exist. The things you've been taught may or may not be the correct lessons. What you have to do is learn them for what their purpose is, and judge them from there. The "sharing is caring" rule applied when we were three and the biggest thing we had was a set of toy cowboys, but at age 23, I am not sure it's as easy as that.

In the political climate of today, each side wants you to blindly jump on the bandwagon...they profess "truths" "beliefs" and "guarantees" and what they want you to do is to take them at their face value. What you need to do is investigate them, apply them to yourself, look to the past for knowledge, and make an informed decision instead of simply checking items that seem "good" off your political ideal list. The things that seem "good" may in fact be bad for the people around you. The things that seem "bad" may be 100% helpful. You have to accept the fact that you won't be "given" the best path, but that you need to search it out and refusing to do so is to give the reigns of your life to someone who won't be affected in the same ways you are.

Don't be content with knowing "yes" or "no", demand "why" and "how" and you might start to understand where we are all going.