link between kindness and social connection is crucial. He told me about Dennis Hickey, a retired philosophy professor he’d met at a senior citizens’ home, who cared deeply about kindness. “He told me there was another word I had to know: the German word ‘mitsein,’ which means ‘being with.’ That’s the higher level of kindness; that’s where the action is. To be kind in the deepest way is to be with others and build connection with them.”
