Constant Kindness in my Inbox

On the eve of Albert Schweitzer's Birthday (January 14, 1875 - September 4,
1965), I found this article in my Inbox, from the director of the local Greater Philadelphia Albert Schweitzer Fellowship program - my friend and colleague, Nikki. I loved the story - true! - of a very comfortable couple and their huge decision - inspired by the life of Albert Schweitzer - to live for others.

At the bottom of the same email I found these words:

"Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate."
- Albert Schweitzer.

I don't know much about Albert Schweitzer, except that his life has been an inspiration to many, and what I have read here. From my participation in the fellowship program, I have absorbed a bit: Schweitzer established and served in a desperately needed hospital in Lambaréné, in what was then French Equatorial Africa; he was known for his commitment to living with Reverence for Life. There is much much more to his life (see link above!), but with just this - just the words above - I find fresh and nourishing values to consider in these fearful, survival-oriented times.

Misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility - all are in the air, these days. We are tempted to "wait it out" - hoping for problems to go away, for the market to bounce back, for the ice to melt - not always the worst thing to do... But consider the claim: "Constant kindness can accomplish much...". It rings so true to me - I have been the surprised recipient of undeserved kindness many times, and have found that a soft word really can quiet a storm...but (I admit with great shame) I tend to think of a focus on kindness as a detour from accomplishing much. :(

So, it is amazing to consider instead an attitude of constant kindness, and what it might do!

Yet, it is not all that simple to contemplate the practice! Kindness...in the face of hostility? Is this wise, even? But the image of sun melting ice, of coldness 'evaporating', of hard feelings softening, hearts opening - this is the image to which we must cling...that these difficult realities might be transformed.

Into what, I ask (with you)? Real differences do not evaporate, nor is truth, simple truth, at odds with a heart of kindness. So, then one must consider this power of "constant kindness" - bold and true - with care, in the face of its enemies, in the reality of truth obscured, positions in conflict, a focus on gain and loss. Constant kindness is creative, it is reverence for life, all of life. And what is possible when we approach all of life, your life as well as mine, with this reverence? I have no easy answers, but I sure hope I get to find out.