Kindness is About Connection

"One rainy evening, I stood in a crowded train, crying after someone I thought would be my first and only love.  I didn't care that everyone could see me, it never occurred to me really. Few stops later, a guy got off the train but handed me a piece of paper before he did so.  Inside, was a drawing of a duck saying "smile."  On the platform, he bent down to tie his shoelaces and looked up at me.  I never stopped crying but smiled for him.  The drawing is still on my wall.  He gave me something that the most dearest can't give sometimes.  He gave me hope..."
– from Acts of Kindness, a project by Michael Landy

Thanks to one of the Kindness Muses, I learned of "Acts of Kindness," a project by London artist Michael Landy that celebrates kindness on the London subway.  The project is part of a government-sponsored Art of the Underground program to enrich the experience of subway users.

Landy, who is Associate Artist at the National Gallery and a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, asked residents of the UK to submit stories of kindness they had experienced on the subway.  He then placed a selection of stories in the Central line stations and trains.

In an interview about the project, Landy explains:  "I'm interested in what makes us human, and what connects us, beyond material things.  For me the answer is compassion and kindness.  And this project is a way of collectively exploring that idea.  I mean I don't know if it's going to help create a kinder place on the Underground.  I think that's probably a big ambition to have.  But, in the way that it can make you feel uplifted when you see someone be kind on the Tube, I'd like to think that the artworks presenting the stories will also do that -- that they'll become life-enhancing for people.  In other words, I hope the artworks are an act of kindness themselves."

The stories relayed by the British subway riders are lovely and poignant and inspiring.  I encourage you to read some of them at art.tfl.gov.uk/acts of kindness.  These accounts illustrate how the smallest acts can lift our spirits by reminding us that we are connected.  When we acknowledge someone else's needs, we are showing the person that we care and that she is not alone.  Frequently, that is the only kindness we need -- to know that no matter what is happening to us, we are not alone.  And that kindness gives one of the greatest gifts of all -- hope.