Blogging Book Club

The Introduction:

With this book, I decided to go chapter by chapter. It talks about a lot of the qualities I hope my children will have, and that I will try to teach them, so I am going to comment on each quality/chapter; kind of Tuesday with Morrie-ish.

I know it seems kind of funny to read a book about kindness. Like, duh, kindness is good, we know that already. I don't know if it was that the preface was written by The Dalai Lama that caught my attention or that the author of the book was looking at kindness from a scientific perspective that made me interested in reading this book. I guess I liked the concept, and now after reading, I thought the book made me look at the term, kindness, a little different.

In the introduction the author talks a little bit about what scientific research has shown about kindness, which isn't surprising, "kind people are healthier and live longer, are more popular and productive, have greater success in business, and are happier than others." The author looked at it from another perspective too, "If we are healthier when we are caring, empathic, and open to others, it means we are born to be kind... Yes, we are designed to be kind." (p. 4-5)

I like that the author says we are in the midst of a "global cooling." He says, "Human relations are becoming colder. Communications are becoming more hurried and impersonal. Values such as profit and efficiency are taking on greater importance at the expense of human warmth and genuine presence." For example, emails instead of talking to someone, automated recordings, older people not being taken care of, children playing video games instead of kickball in the back yard, etc. Instead, he says, human warmth is being sold as a product, "homemade ice cream, pasta just like Grandma used to make, the car that makes you feel you are back in the womb, etc." (p.9-10)

I thought it was interesting that the author would note, "the Ice Age we are passing through is worrisome, and I am not surprised that it goes hand in hand with the epidemic of depression and panic attacks, probably the two psychological disturbances most linked to lack of warmth and of a reassuring and protective community, and to a weakened sense of belonging." (p.11)

"My thesis is that true kindness is a strong, genuine, warm way of being. It is the result of the interplay among several qualities, such as warmth, trust, patience, loyalty, gratitude, and many others. Each chapter in this book will be about kindness seen from the standpoint of one of these qualities. It will be a variation on the same musical theme." (p.7-8)

First quality to be discussed in my next post: Honesty