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Today's
Meditation:
Thank
you, Addison, for putting it so bluntly and
succinctly. It's not just okay to be a nice person,
but it's even desirable-- after all, nice people are
winners in the game of life. They've learned how to
treat others with kindness and compassion, and they've
learned just how they can affect others in positive ways
with their nice thoughts, words, and deeds.
Even
as a kid I had serious problems with the idea that
"nice guys finish last." It just seemed
like such a stupid idea to me, one that would make almost
everyone want to not be a nice person. Who wants to
finish last? It also made it sound like anyone who
finishes first simply can't be a nice person through the
very virtue of their victory.
Niceness
and kindness are the building blocks of decent, caring
societies of the world. When these qualities are
present in our day-to-day interactions with other human
beings, then we see many more people who are well-adjusted
and who are enjoying life to the fullest. When we
know that other people are motivated simply by the desire
to be nice to others, we don't have to worry about how
they're going to treat us tomorrow or the next day, and a
lot of stress leaves us.
Be
kind. Love one another. Be nice. These
are ways that we can make our own little worlds, the
spaces that we inhabit here among the rest of the world, very pleasant places to live,
places where we can thrive
and grow into the wonderful people we all have the
potential to be.
The
greatest mark of who we are is how we treat others.
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