“So what do you want to get out of life?” Questions like that come along now and then. They feel like big questions that beg a big answer. I find myself repeating the same reply — a clever quip, I picked up years ago. What do I expect out of life?
“Just a few kind words,” I say. “Just a few kind words.”
Sounds like I'm kidding around, but I am not.
We worry a lot about what others say and think about us. That anxiety comes from a real need to be appreciated and understood. I remember when I was 14 bumping 15. In my ninth-grade yearbook was a section called “Reflections and Comments.” Many were written by classmates.
I had not submitted anything, but next to my name was written a Shakespeare quote: “Little body with a mighty heart.”
I never felt connected or recognized in my school years. I was a skinny, shy kid who stayed off the radar — and the honor roll. But when I read those words something blossomed inside me.
I don’t know who put that quote by my name, but suddenly I felt connected. Appreciated. A feeling that never went away.
Kind words have a pulse. Somewhere inside us they attach where we easily can find them, where they are needed most. Those few kind words, dating back half a century, stay with me. Never forgotten.
We need to do that more. Share kind words. Simply tell others you appreciate them for who they are. And mean it.
I’m Lonny Cain … and that’s my Perspective.