Origin stories are important. How and why things begin are so important in
the understanding of what something means.
Humans have historically enjoyed creating these stories and passing them
down through generations as a way of sharing who we are and what we value.
Last spring I started to really consider the importance of
small acts of kindness. I experienced
some kindness with friends, I watched a docu-series on Netflix called The
Kindness Diaries, and I was the recipient of some serious kindness during
the summer. I had many experiences with
family, friends, and strangers that showed me how powerful even the smallest
acts of kindness can be. Each of those
stories individually could take up an entire blog post. Each story is important to me, and each one
has changed me over the last year. Each
one could be cited as an origin story for The Ninjas of Kindness.
When the academic year began in August, I picked up my
weekly coffee talk with a handful of students.
This started with Armir, a long time student, a couple of years
ago. We found sort of accidentally that
we had free time on a Thursday morning and started meeting there each week to
chat and have fancy coffee. We kept
adding all the art majors who passed by until we had a weekly group of 4-8
people. These were fun times of laughing
and talking, a good way to feel better about starting our full days of studio
classes.
A very bright and observant student noted one day that these
events were fun, but they were inwardly focused. They wondered out loud what would happen if
we changed that focus by turning it more outward. Instead of having a coffee club that was at
least a little exclusive (to those who had free schedules on Thursday
mornings), what would happen if we made that same amount of time about other
people? Even non-art majors. Maybe we could take that special magic we
have in our department and spread it to our campus neighbors.
And with that question, The Ninjas of Kindness was
born. Each Thursday since that question
was asked we’ve gathered in the same spot, still had a quick coffee, but also
started doing at least one activity to spread kindness. The first couple of weeks we huddled up and
then spread across campus handing out little slips of paper with inspirational
phrases on them. We handed out candy a
couple of weeks. Another week we wrote
kind words on painted rocks and planted them around campus to be found by
strangers. We’ve given high fives in the
plaza. We’ve given hugs. We’ve given out balloon animals.
But these are all just the activities. Just the physical, observable part of the
Ninjas of Kindness. I could speculate
that what we’ve also done is make people smile on a Thursday morning. I could argue that we’ve changed the course
of someone’s morning, day, or even week.
I could argue we’ve changed someone’s life…just by taking a couple of
minutes of free time and thinking outside of ourselves.
It’s a little like my
dad pausing and thinking about us before getting in the truck. Taking just a moment to bring kindness and
joy to someone through a small, selfless act.
Recently I was asked how the Ninjas of Kindness group
started. I thought about how kindness
kept showing up in my life over the last several months. I thought about how people went out of their
way to be kind to me over the summer. I
thought about my mom baking sweets for me, my aunt Laura Jean sending bags of
groceries to college with me every weekend, and students sending me thank you
notes or small gifts. I thought about
the student suggesting we consider other people, and I thought about my dad
walking up to the window, ordering a Humdinger for himself and a chocolate malt
for me, silently teaching me how to be kind.
You can watch a video my son Blue created about the Ninjas of Kindness here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiL-GR77_QY&t=3s
or search "doug mcabee" on Youtube and find my bald head in the profile photo. Follow or subscribe or whatever you do there.
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