Show Kindness

On seeing people as human, even when the world forgets to

The cashier at the grocery store is moving slowly. You can see the exhaustion in the way she handles each item, the mechanical precision of someone who stopped thinking about what their hands are doing hours ago. There’s a line forming behind you. The people in that line are getting restless, their impatience becoming a physical presence in the air.

You have a choice in this moment that you probably won’t register as a choice. You can treat this interaction as a transaction to be completed as efficiently as possible. Or you can treat it as a brief intersection of two human lives, both of which contain depths and struggles invisible to the other.

The difference between these two approaches seems small. A smile. A “how are you doing today?” said like you might actually want to know the answer. A moment of patience when she drops something and has to start the scanning process over. These gestures cost you maybe thirty seconds.

But what do they cost her to receive? And what do they cost you…