The Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative (GCGI) is happy to acknowledge and honour the World Kindness Day. A day dedicated to shifting our understanding of who we are and the very foundations of our world and our humanity.
November 13th is World Kindness Day. It's a day where everyone looks past stereotypes and misfortunes. It's a day to perform a random act of kindness and show the world that we are all in this together. It's a day to show others that, despite the busyness in our lives, kindness, love, sincerity and the common good still exist.
He that seeks the good of the many seeks in consequence his own good.- St Thomas Aquinas
When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad.- Abraham Lincoln
God loves a cheerful giver.- St. Paul
A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.- The Buddha
“The date decreed for World Kindness Day is 13th November. This was the opening day of the first World Kindness Movement conference held at Tokyo in 1998, and the 35th anniversary of the Small Kindness Movement of Japan, which brought the signatories of the ‘declaration of kindness’ of the World Kindness Movement together in 1997.
The purpose of World Kindness Day is to look beyond ourselves, beyond the boundaries of our country, beyond our culture, our race, our religion; and realise we are citizens of the world. As world citizens we have a commonality, and must realise that if progress is to be made in human relations and endeavours, if we are to achieve the goal of peaceful coexistence, we must focus on what we have in common. When we find likenesses we begin to experience empathy, and in such a state we can fully relate to that person or those people. While we may think of people from other cultures as being ‘different’ when we compare them with our own customs and beliefs, it doesn’t mean that we are any better than they are. When we become friends with someone from a different culture we discover that despite some obvious differences, there are many similarities.
Sometimes knowledge is passed on to us about different races, different cultures, that has become distorted, and we build up a false, negative impression of these people. It is only when we get to know such people that we realise it is a lie.
We can be co-creators of a better world, and we can have a positive effect on world peace, when we bring order into our lives. Be what you want the world to be. Is that difficult? Only if you think it is! When we accept the reality that we can create positive change, we move beyond ourselves, our limitations, our doubts, and realise our infinite power. Anthropologist Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
All in all, “The Spirit of Generosity” is what matters most. Given the significance of this, let us see what this spirit is, and what it is all about:
Generosity of Spirit
As it has been observed, “The concept of generosity has many meanings, most often connoting giving of money or gifts to charities or other people. Other definitions of the word include:
*Showing a readiness to give more of something, as money or time, than is strictly necessary or expected.
*Showing kindness toward others.
*Liberal in giving or sharing; unselfish; free from meanness or smallness of mind or character; magnanimous.
These are the three I want to focus on in this post. When put together, I refer to this definition as “generosity of spirit.”
The concept suggests that one engages others with an open heart and mind. It presumes a non-judgmental attitude along with a tolerance for ideas and behaviours that may not comport with one’s own. It requires a high level of tolerance for different beliefs, values, and behaviour. Generosity of spirit requires that one spend more energy looking at what it good and positive in someone than at what one thinks is bad or negative. Generosity of spirit embraces differences with acceptance.
People who are generous of spirit are genuinely happy for others good fortune irrespective of their own circumstances. They are devoid of envy, seldom have disparaging thoughts about others and never make disparaging comments. They tend to look for and assume the best in people and treat all people with the same degree of respect and acceptance. They go beyond mere tolerance; they tend to be more magnanimous and are able to include greater differences from their own beliefs or values.
We have a choice as to how we will orient ourselves in the world and how we will act. We can choose to view the world through the eyes of a positivist who sees the world as filled with possibility and potential, and thereby approaches life with enthusiasm, wonder, and joy. Or we can view the world through the eyes of the cynic, who sees nothing but corruption, and therefore approaches the world with distrust, suspicion, sarcasm, and scorn.
Similarly, we can engage the world with a generosity of spirit where we greet people with trust, openness, and compassion or we can choose to engage from the position of self-pity, envy, and disdain. Should we choose the former, we increase the probability of experiencing happiness in our lives; if we choose the latter, we increase the probability of feeling depressed and resentful. The choice is ours.”
Ubuntu in the Xhosa Culture Means “I Am because We Are”
I would like to close with a story that illustrates “Generosity of Spirit” to perfection: An anthropologist proposed a game to children in an African tribe. He put a basket of fruit near a tree and told the children that whoever got there first would win the sweet fruits. When he told them to run, they all took each other’s hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that, since one of them could have had all the fruits for himself, they said: “Ubuntu, how can one of us be happy if all the others are sad?”
If you wish to read more:
Why Love, Trust, Respect and Gratitude Trumps Economics
http://gcgi.info/kamrans-blog/177-why-love-trust-respect-and-gratitude-trumps-economics
Opening Remarks: In Gratitude for your Friendship and Support
http://gcgi.info/2012-oxford-papers/298-opening-remarks-in-gratitude-for-your-friendship-and-support
Look All Around You and Pursue the Common Good
http://gcgi.info/kamrans-blog/191-look-all-around-you-and-pursue-the-common-good
In Praise of Generosity, Compassion and Kindness: Lessons of London 2012
Alan Luks with Peggy Payne, The Healing Power of Doing Good: The Health and Spiritual Benefits of Helping Others, Fawcett Columbine, New York, 1991