A Reminder to Be Kinder
his month’s message is a gentle reminder to cherish each other and recommit to doing good. The world can be mean. Wars across the globe flash images of suffering we can’t heal. On all sides, politics has become blood sport. Incivility permeates public discourse. People say venomous things they might only have thought before but never would have spoken.
BPNN must remain a safe harbor. Within our walls, we focus on the shared value of helping. The person stocking shelves might disagree with you politically, religiously, and socially. He or she might be the antithesis of all you believe except for the bedrock conviction that together we can make the world better. And that’s all that matters when we are here.
How noble it is to support each other in making the world more generous, thoughtful, and kind. It is much easier to feed the melancholy side of human nature. Incivility lurks in human hearts and gladly surfaces if we let it. We must keep it out of BPNN. Part of what makes us great is how we feed the best of our nature, uniting people to do what people should do – help others.
So, next time you are here look around. See people making the world better who might differ with you in a thousand ways. None of that impedes our joyful quest. What you believe only matters here if it includes the desire to make our world better. In each of us, buried deeper in some than in others, lives the desire to improve the world. How else can you explain 1,000 volunteers giving time, treasure, and talent without recognition or remuneration? This is not pollyannish. It is real.
Tennyson wrote, “That which we are, we are, one equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” Well, Heroic Hearts, it’s up to us. Will we accept the challenge of our age, to be kind in the face of a hostile world, to put aside differences and focus on helping, to appreciate that we all share this precious, fragile, and brief existence with our neighbors? If you accept the challenge, when the time comes to look back, as it will if we live long enough, you can reflect with pride on what you do today to improve the world. You won’t be a sad creature of protest and division, missing opportunities to unify our world.
Spring brings renewal. Please renew your commitment to our mission. Helping matters. Kindness matters. You matter. When you are here, abandon pins, shirts, hats, and language that might offend, and let’s get to work. Your contribution is nothing short of heroic, dear friends. Please be kind. Thank you for all you do.