Kindness is a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye detailing how beneficial it is to experience kindness and how useful a tool it is for us humans. Also, she tells how, to experience the importance of kindness, we must also experience the negativity sorrow can bring, before we can truly understand the value of kindness. In the poem, she also uses metaphors for food, which I feel can relate to kindness through the aspect of bringing people together. For example, the use of the metaphor, “like salt in a weakened broth,” when describing dissolving into the moment, the metaphor isn’t used in a situation to describe kindness, however I feel that Nye purposefully put metaphors relating to food in the poem because of how it has similar effects on people. She also describes the different aspects of kindness, for example she describes learning empathy through this metaphor, “Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness / you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho / lies dead by the side of the road. / You must see how this could be you,” this, to me, is talking about empathy and how you must understand the experiences of the Indian, putting yourself in his shoes.
In terms of the current events, I definitely think kindness has huge importance. For Covid-19, kindness is crucial, especially the empathy part, we all need to understand how important it is to continue to stay isolated and understand how it could affect others if we don’t. Also, understanding the economic impact and how some people have lost nearly everything due to the pandemic, that’s why we need empathy. For the murder of George Floyd, white people need to find the kindness, most importantly empathy to fix the system we have right now, because as much as some people want to believe, it’s not fair. Kindness is essential to create a fair and equal justice system, because at this moment in time it’s not. After countless murders of unarmed black men and women it’s clear it’s time to change. For the people who don’t understand that is exactly why empathy is important because while I can never fully understand what it’s like to be targeted because of my skin color, at least I have the ability to feel empathy and understand, at least, that we need change. Overall, kindness is crucial for understanding and supporting people in times of need.
In terms of the current events, I definitely think kindness has huge importance. For Covid-19, kindness is crucial, especially the empathy part, we all need to understand how important it is to continue to stay isolated and understand how it could affect others if we don’t. Also, understanding the economic impact and how some people have lost nearly everything due to the pandemic, that’s why we need empathy. For the murder of George Floyd, white people need to find the kindness, most importantly empathy to fix the system we have right now, because as much as some people want to believe, it’s not fair. Kindness is essential to create a fair and equal justice system, because at this moment in time it’s not. After countless murders of unarmed black men and women it’s clear it’s time to change. For the people who don’t understand that is exactly why empathy is important because while I can never fully understand what it’s like to be targeted because of my skin color, at least I have the ability to feel empathy and understand, at least, that we need change. Overall, kindness is crucial for understanding and supporting people in times of need.
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