When thinking of Compassion, what comes to mind? In "Compassionate Societies" case, it is the ending of suffering worldwide. But how can just one person make a difference in this world? By changing and affecting those around them with small acts of compassion that can be demonstrated in their every day lives. The act of 'compassion' does not necessarily have to be a large, quantitative lump some of money or even donating time.

I came across a website called Random Acts of Kindness. It’s a website where people submit their stories about how they helped someone or someone helped them. The website shows that there are people in the world who take time out of their day to do a good deed for others. The goal of this site is to inspire and motivate others to participate in a random act of kindness.  Their mission statement is “get involved, get inspired, and tell us your story."

Over Thanksgiving break, I went home and had a routine chiropractic appointment. It ended up being much more than that. Not only was it a healing through practice, but also through the words of a new employee named Agnus. Agnus is from Ghana in West Africa and she moved to the United States when she was 20.  I had an hour conversation with Agnus and she taught me about the effects of poverty, hunger, etc. At the end of our conversation, Agnus left me with a enticing message, she said, “You should be kind and love everyone you come in contact with because you never know who will come to your aide when you need it.” Compassion can be simple and Angus is one of the most compassionate people I have ever met.  

As I walked with my friend to class yesterday, we passed some janitors cleaning up outside the buildings. About half a block later, we walked past an ash tray with a takeout container on top of it. As we passed it, my friend said "This isn’t a garbage can, people! This is littering.” She picked it up and took it to a garbage can and threw it away. The janitors were making their way down the sidewalk, so they could have picked it up when they came to it. But my friend had done it for them.

In the 2009 book, On Kindness, Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor contend that until 250 years ago, Western civilization treated kindness and compassion as treasured. Now Western thought mostly relegates kindness and compassion to the weak. Instead, we value individualism, materialism and toughness in daily life as well as national politics.
Phillips and Taylor clam that in reality human beings necessarily face deep inner conflicts over personal kindness and community compassion. It is time to resurrect kindness, and armed with compassion, begin to repair our lives and social institutions.