Wall Street Journal’s 2016 article “Nice People Really Do Have More Fun” explores the topic that even though “Selfish nastiness is all the rage (these days)…research shows that pleasant behavior leads to more success and happiness in life.” This was especially proven by two British scientists in 2010 when they looked into the effects of engaging in small daily acts of kindness. Their results, published in the Journal of Social Psychology, show evidence that “kind acts, systemically deployed, raised the participants’ self-judged happiness.”
Seventeen years ago, actors Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, and Joel Osment starred in the movie, “Pay It Forward.” The movie helped to commercialize the idea that people have the capacity to do good for others. The production exploited the idea that “paying it forward” is based on the idea that something of a chain reaction occurs when kindness and generosity become socially contagious occurrences with a domino effect occurring on a grand scale.
This certainly is not a new idea. The Jewish concept of a mitzvah is meant (ordinarily speaking) as a good deed or an act of kindness. Judaism teaches that the world is built on kindness. However, it is difficult to pinpoint the beginning of the recent random and non-premeditated donated acts of goodness in our country. Some say that it began in New York City many years ago. Wikipedia informs us that in 2017, the country of Slovenia saw more than 2000 people involved with the movement as a “World Day of Kindness” was held there on November 13, 2017.
In the past 20 years, organizations on our planet have continued to develop in ways that are committed to performing acts of generosity spontaneously. Their goal is to change our planet in a positive way: One good deed at a time. Indeed, “Pay It Forward Day,” now found on your American 2019 calendar, has become a successful world initiative with 80 countries participating.
“The Kindness Card” (which can be purchased on your computers) is one way that monetary acts of generosity can be randomly given to strangers. My younger son, Bill, tells me that (while standing in a Dallas fast-food restaurant line a few years ago) the unknown person ahead of him paid for his food order with the message that Bill should simply pass on the good deed.” On another occasion, after leaving my house this past Christmas Eve, my older son, Jim, and his wife, Judy, stopped briefly, at Reed and #47’s strip mall. Upon returning to their auto there, they discovered a $20 gift card on their car’s windshield. The message on the card’s envelope stated simply “Spread the love to someone else.” The “Kindness Movement” does appear to be alive and well as we begin the year 2019!
Next Publication: Part 2: Ideas for “Spreading the Love” and Health Benefits.
