February is Heart Month and Black History Month,
Host to Groundhog Day, Super Bowl Sunday, Valentine’s Day,
Presidents’ Day, plus, in 2026, a confluence of cultural holidays:
Chinese New Year, Mardi Gras, and the first day of Ramadan,
All of which occur on February 17. Perhaps providentially, the day
Has also been branded “Random Acts of Kindness Day.”
Lately the world does not seem kind.
Wide-ranging verbal attacks can distort and depress.
Yet through the ages, a plethora of prophets and
Seers have preached kindness:
The surest way to lift your own mood, they advise, is
To do something kind for someone else.
While meandering along neighborhood sidewalks
Near my current home, I came across a recently painted
Mural on the steps leading to an area middle school.
Fashioned by a local Girl Scout troop, it reminds us all:
“In a world where you can be anything, be kind.”
The placement of the axiom seems especially apt–
Lots of us during middle school try to
Stoke our still-fragile egos by demeaning others.
The sentiments of the Scouts are laudable, but
I have a minor quibble with their choice of words–
Despite decades of life since middle school,
Whenever I’m smarting from a perceived snub or injustice,
I still find it very difficult to be genuinely kind.
My aging self has not yet fully absorbed
The discipline of kindness. It may take me until
The great hereafter, if even then, to become uniformly kind.
In the meantime, it’s worthwhile for me to practice kindness
Especially on “Random Acts of Kindness Day.”
Jinny's Occasional Poems 