HUMANITAS

Kindness.

"Charity, compassion and friendship for its own sake. Empathy and trust without prejudice or resentment. Unconditional love and voluntary kindness without bias or spite. Having positive outlook and cheerful demeanor; to inspire kindness in others."

Thefreeonlinedictionary.com defines Kindness as:
"1. The practice or quality of being kind.
2. A kind, considerate, or helpful act."


“Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”
-Hebrews 13:2 (NIV)



This one time! At Boy Scout camp…

I met this guy named Clint. “Having positive outlook and cheerful demeanor”. First time I met this guy I was like, “what is it with this schmuck?” Has one of those lil guy voices and the coolest, “awww gee golly that’s swell” type of attitudes. Unless you are completely evil and heartless… you can’t help but walk away from a conversation with Clint without a smile on your face.

I’m rather disappointed I only got to work alongside Clint for my last season of camp. On the other hand… someone I did get to work with my whole time at camp, is one of my adopted Moms. Liz, Camp name: Lizard.

Lizard is one of the members of the Rancho trinity. “Unconditional love and voluntary kindness without bias or spite”. Well, ok, maybe the no bias might be a bit of a stretch considering some of our conversations… but hey, that’s beside the point. She is the camp Mom. I don’t care who the camp director, or program director, or whatever the hell title anyone has… SHE is really what keeps the camp together. The secret ingredient in the food that makes Rancho the best Scout kitchen in the Western Region: Love. Yes, that’s right… she literally cooks with love (funny how her “love” container looks and smells an awful lot like oregano).

Liz has been a HUGE part of my life over the last decade… but there is another great example of Kindness that has played a HUGE part in TWO decades of my life. Which… considering I’m only 24, is kind of a big deal.

Phil, the Michelangelo to my Leonardo. Without a doubt… he is one of the most kind hearted people I’ve ever had the good fortune of knowing. That’s why I use him.

Oh yes, that’s right, I just publically admitted to using a good friend of mine. Why? Whenever I am going into a situation where I need people in a good mood, for whatever the reason may be… whether I am attempting to shyster someone or get away with something, or whether I am simply in need of an Arctic Ocean size ice breaker, I try to make sure I have Phil with me. Besides the fact that I love spending time with him, and besides having the “the cutest lil dimples ever!” He is amazing with people.

I could go on forever about how many different ways Phil is a personification of the definition of the virtue of Kindness, but if you want to hear me just go on and on about Phil, check out my Blog from Jan 2010 called, “Michelangelo is a party dude”. It is easy for me to talk about Phil, but, there is someone else who Christ had in mind when he spoke of being kind to others… a friend who is in all honesty… a good friend of my best friend.

Coach Kendall, as displayed above with his son, has to be one of the kindest teachers VCA let slip away from them (damn fools). He coached the Jr. Varsity football team when I was already on Varsity, and the computer classes after I had taken all the computer classes I needed, so I honestly did not get to spend a lot of time with Aaron myself, but Andrew did. They spent a lot of time together, and everything Andrew would report back left a good impression of him.

Aaron, despite being friends with several members of the “we hate E club” is not a member himself. In fact he is actually quite friendly to me. That sounds easy, but given my history at VCA, that actually is surprising. He is kind. He helped Andrew get an amazing job with a good company in Santa Barbara.

Val was a terrible pain in the ass of a student to Mrs. Kendall. Despite all of that, Coach K still made an attempt to help Val also get a job like he did with Andrew. Certainly not because of his great friendship with Val, it was simply because he is a Kind person.

Truly an example of “compassion and friendship for its own sake. Empathy and trust without prejudice or resentment.” I do not get to hang out with Coach K as often as Andrew does, but when I do, I see the “positive outlook and cheerful demeanor to inspire kindness in others”.

I am very fortunate to have people like this in my life, but it’s not just me… I am sure that if you look at the people in your own life, you will see quite a few people who you can just tell God placed on this Earth to make it a much more beautiful place.


As the Roman philosopher and statesman Seneca once said:

“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness”