Here in Gibsons, things are pretty quiet. That’s why I was surprised to see one of our RCMP officers running full speed after a shoplifter through the parking lot at the London Drugs store. It was quite a chase, with the young man dodging and darting through the parked cars, jumping barriers and running as if his life depended on it. But, the fleet-footed officer was fit and fast and eventually apprehended the breathless youth, who was struggling to get free, and handcuffed his hands behind his back.
After placing the youth in the back of the car, he opened the front door and reached into the car. My first thought was, “Oh my God, he’s going to get a Taser to neutralize the boy.” To my surprise he emerged with a bottle of cold water, opened the back door, and before even taking a drink himself, tilted the boy’s head back and said, “Here, drink this” to his panting passenger. I couldn’t help thinking of what would have happened to him if he were in the States. The kindness and caring that this officer showed to the boy touched me to tears. But that was just the beginning.
I was so startled that I unknowingly dropped my wallet as I was getting out of my car and went in to shop. When I came out of the store an older woman came up to me and asked if I had lost my wallet. I hadn’t noticed as I had my debit card in my front pocket, but yes, it was gone. She told me that the officer had waited 20 minutes for me but had to go back to the station, about 500 yards from the store. So I headed to the police station and was greeted by a friendly dispatcher, as if I was a customer coming in to buy flowers.
In a few minutes the officer who had apprehended the youth walked in the back door. He politely returned my wallet. Wondering what had happened to the boy, I asked if he was going to be incarcerated. To my surprise the officer, Const. Ben Stewart, replied with a caring smile, “No, we’re trying to find him a job.” What?
Observing this genuine act of kindness so altered my perception that I would say something inside me was irrevocably transformed. Rather than punishing those who are experiencing social challenges, we alienate them by labeling them and treating them as criminals. When, in fact, they are only exhibiting strategic behaviour born of early emotional or physical trauma that was learned to get the love and attention they needed as children. What we all need is to feel we belong, that someone cares and that we are connected. Kindness, not punishment, is the healing force that allows people to change.
The root word for kindness, cynde, which means native, innate, natural, born of a particular nature, derives from a sense of family and belonging. Have we become so isolated from each other and the web of life that we have suppressed our natural ability to be kind to our kin, which is really all of life?
Let’s start a revolution of kindness, starting with the way we treat ourselves! Can we love our thoughts, perceived flaws, weaknesses and who we are, just as we are? Can we practise forgiveness towards others who have acted unkindly to us? What if, like the Dalai Lama, we made kindness our religion? What kind of a world would we have, if we made simple acts of kindness our practice?
I hope you will join me, and the RCMP, this month in integrating kindness in to your daily practices.
(Michael Stone is the host and producer of KVMR’s Conversations (www.AreWeListening.net). He moved to Gibsons a year ago and loves living on the Coast.)
