With Death, Riots and a Scandal at every turn, we need a Cultural Pivot … Kindness & Humanity, It’s all around. 

You open your phone or turn on the TV and are hit with horror stories of the latest political scandal, you browse through social media and see faceless insults tearing each other down and the world is moving so fast that the elder don’t feel like they belong anymore. What happened to morals, decency and kindness?

Our world is moving at a pace previously unimaginable, with the internet and travel, we have a melting pot of different cultures and customs all around. There is no way we can learn all the different customs but what we can learn is there is one universal language and that language is Kindness and Love.

The media shows that we are divided and fighting and that there are two sides and there is no way we can get along. Yet, we are all on this earth together, we are all one and when you sit down to talk to a stranger, you find there is so much we do agree on. There is so much that we love about our country and there is love all around. We simply need to look. When you walk down the street and talk to a stranger, you find them gentle, kind and human.

The other day, my 23-year-old friend called me with panic in her voice, stating that the Mercedes she was driving for her boss had stalled in the middle of the road. I drove 10 minutes to where she was and because the car was all electric, we could not even open the trunk of the car where the owner’s manual was. The emergency lights wouldn’t gone on because it was electric. This had disaster written all over it. The tow truck was going to take 40 minutes to get to us.

As I stood in the middle of this two-lane highway, directing traffic, I have to admit I was nervous as cars were driving by at 40 MPH. In less than 2 minutes, 3 other cars had pulled in front and back of us putting their blinkers on to alert oncoming traffic. A group of 4 friends were walking down the street and offered to help direct traffic. Every one of them stayed with us until the tow truck arrived.

While we could never figure out how to open the hood of the car, what was opened were my eyes, and my heart, and my mind. In the 40 minutes we were there nearly every 4 th car driving by stopped to see if we needed help. Gentlemen were gentlemen and the ladies were there supporting their men. The kindness and sincerity were all around and I shed a tear at that moment. I hugged these strangers and thanked them. I offered the last one who stayed with us a tip and he wouldn’t take it. What he did walk away with was the pride of helping and knowing we were safe.

That was a simple act of humanity and kindness. Its all around. You just need to look