Simple Acts of Kindness

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us the less taste we shall have for the destruction of our race. Wonder and humility are wholesome emotions, and they do not exist side by side with a lust for destruction.”

-Rachel Carson

This quote as well as Rachel Carson has always spoken to me in such a way that hope has filled my veins even in times of hopelessness and the downfall of human kindness. Over the past few years of college, I have found myself going through waves of conflicted feelings attributed to my contributions to the planet as well as the humans and other beings that occupy Earth. At one point in my life, when I was about eighteen or so, my main objective and goal was to immediately, “save the planet.” I had so many naive ideas as to how I planned on achieving those goals and I did not think about the reality of the impact of my existence. I did not think about the little actions that could amount to so much more than I could have ever imagined. Before, I believed that social and environmental change needed to occur through these vast actions such as a complete shutdown of corporations that inflict environmental harm and oppress entire communities. My mind always thought in this large, extravagant manner and I have come to learn through experiences such as college, and life in general, that changes can also occur on a smaller levels. Simple acts such as bringing food to someone on the street, hosting a potluck or a clothing swap, or even educating children who may have no other adult interaction other than educators at school, etc..

Although it is wonderful that someone like Leonardo DiCaprio has enough money to make large scale differences in a tiny amount of time, small scale deeds are also effective. Humans are born into differing narratives that lead each person down an individual path. Some are born into a family and town that survives by oil mining, or coal mining. Others have been brought up into environmentally friendly families who take their children on annual hikes through the Trinity Alps. We have all come from different backgrounds that have shaped our entire thought processes and therefore, humans have their own, individual tactics in which they choose to effect the planet and those around them.

I immediately thought of these concepts and ideals when I read Danusha Veronica Goska’s piece “Political Paralysis” in The Impossible will take a little While, specifically when Goska spoke about a woman who believed she did not have much power on this screwed up planet. She quoted the woman stating, “I want to do something, but what can I do? I’m just one person, an average person. I can’t have an impact. I live with the despair of my own powerlessness. I can’t bring myself to do anything. The world is so screwed up, and I have so little power. I feel so paralyzed” (47). Goska appeared to be astounded by this woman’s words. She went on to talk about the importance of human selflessness and kindness and how far small acts can go in terms of creating social and environmental change. She talked about how receiving car rides from other humans meant more to her than most could imagine, and how these rides typically came from other individuals who did not have much in terms of money themselves.

Goska talks in depth her illness and longing for human connection and speaks about a man who gave her a ride home one day. She stated, “He didn’t hand me the thousands of dollars I needed for surgery. He didn’t take me in and empty my puke bucket. He just gave me one ride, one day. I am still grateful to him and touched by his gesture”(48).  I truly believe that with compassion and love between humans then a more just world will follow. As a teenager, the idea of human kindness never struck me as the answer to environmental destruction or human oppression. I just thought that direct political action was the only answer; I suppose I did not consider the chain of events that might lead up to political change. From my experience, one act can lead to greater acts and then slowly, to a more just world in which environmental and societal destruction will have faded.