Internet Gems

I confess I spend too much time during the day looking at other websites. Some are blogs, some tumblr sites and facebook. But sometimes you find a gem in the dishwater. Here is today’s gem in my estimation.

“In [fairy tales], power is rarely the right tool for survival anyway. Rather the powerless thrive on alliances, often in the form of reciprocated acts of kindness – from beehives that were not raided, birds that were not killed but set free or fed, old women who were saluted with respect. Kindness sown among the meek is harvested in crisis”

— Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby. (via wraithlings)

Isn’t this true if you think back to childhood fairytales? Although a few of the characters have to learn the kindness before they get their reward, those that are kind gain powerful allies.

It seems like something we still need to learn. Treat people with kindness and respect…you don’t know if they are a fairy or witch in disguise, or someone who might help you in the future even if you can’t possibly see how that might be. That is a mercenary view, perhaps, but then what can it hurt you to be kind? Love that old ‘What goes around, comes around.”

So like Androcles, take the thorn out of the lion you meet on your way. It might never pay off, and Androcles did not do it for payment, but you never know.

If that seems a little mercenary perhaps you can think of it as, ‘what you practice is what you become’. You want to be a nicer person, you have to practice being nicer. And isn’t being kind/nice, as a choice, a powerful thing?