kindness

Did you have a Ouija board back when you were a kid? I did. My girlfriends and I would often pull it out in the middle of the night during a slumber party and ask it questions of huge magnitude like, “does Jimmy like Kathy?” or “who is going to ask me to dance at the next Cotillion?” or once we started to feel braver and kind of scared, “how will Toby die?” or “will my parents get a divorce?” or "when will the world end?"

I sort of feel like we are skipping across the top of a Ouija board these days. There is so much uncertainty in the air.

And there seem to be so many people who have the power to nudge the “Ouija” in this direction or that, spelling out lots of different possibilities for the future.

One thing I am learning, though, is this: no matter what, people basically have kindness swelling in their chests.

Think back to what Anne Franke wrote in her diary:

“I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

Ever since I issued a wish list for items to take to the orphans at St. Mary Kevin’s in Uganda, my email in-box has been jammed, my front porch has been stacked with boxes and my phone rings a lot more often. It’s been incredible, really.

Forget skin color, sexual orientation, political views, religion or socio-economic status… everyone wants to help. Nothing divides people when it comes to simply being kind.

If I were thirteen and had just asked “Ouija” if people would really step up to the plate again and again to help one hundred and fifty motherless/fatherless children in a small town 7,000 miles away from where I live, I wouldn’t have to persuade it very much to spell out an emphatic Y-E-S.