Scene: Chatting easily, Linda is hauling a happy Plant out for a wagon ride. The distant drone of an ambulance puts Linda in a certain frame of mind.
Plant: What’s your favorite human character trait?
Linda: What do you mean, Plant? I don’t have a favorite — I just have character traits. I work at optimizing them.
P: Work at them how?
L: To enhance the positive ones and reduce the negative ones.
P: Probably another growth-oriented focus for you? Anyway, list a positive one you work at every day.
L: That’s easy. Being kind.
P: I didn’t expect that answer. Why?
L: Kindness (Figure 1) makes a big difference in people’s lives, including mine.
P: Give me an example.
L: Okay. Once upon a time …
P (sighing): I thought you were giving me an example.
L: Hush. It’s easier to tell this story as a fable.
P: Oh.
L: As I was saying, once upon a time, there was a man who developed cancer.
P: …Ohhhh…
L: He went through many treatments: chemotherapies, surgeries, immunotherapy, multiple radiation events. The disease would wax and wane.
P: This was serious.
L: Yes. Multiple recurrences – life or death — with brief quiescent intervals in between. And one day, the man and his wife shared news with their family that cancer had raised its despicable head yet again.
P: That would be hard.
L: Very hard. And the extended family felt sadder than sad.
P: Go on.
L: The man and his wife had a daughter-in-law who felt things deeply.
P: She must have felt so sad for her father-in-law and the family. She must have wanted to do something to help him.
L: Yes. And some weeks later, she came to visit holding an upside-down garbage bag suspended over something hung on a hanger.
P: Garbage bag?
L: Correct. Black. Contractor grade. Open at the bottom.
P: …And…?
L: The family had a clothes rack on rollers used for hanging clothes.
P: A rolling clothes rack?
L: Yes. The daughter-in-law handed the upside-down garbage bag to her husband. Then she went into the storage room and unloaded the clothes rack.
P: … Is that so? … And then what?
L: She rolled out the clothes rack to where the family was and hung the upside-down garbage bag, open at the bottom, from its hanger on the top.
P: And then?
L: The daughter-in-law stripped off the garbage bag, unveiling a colorful, shimmering paper sculpture (Figure 2) she had made for the man with cancer.
P: …Really…
L: Yes. She had finally thought of what to do to express her caring and to encourage her father-in-law when he was so clearly discouraged.
P: So, she did … this.
L: The daughter-in-law remembered the story of Sadako Sasaki*, a Japanese girl present when Hiroshima was bombed. She developed leukemia and had heard that if a person folded 1,000 cranes, the gods would grant that person one wish. Sadako died at age 12 before she could finish folding all the cranes, but the daughter-in-law in our fable finished her thousand cranes, then wished that the gods would make the man well. This was all she could do, but she did it.
P: That is kindness and caring raised to another level.
L: Yes. And with excellent treatment and some encouragement, the man survived.
P: Maybe related, maybe not, but tangible kindness might inspire a patient to exhibit more stamina in fighting the disease.
L: Yes. And several years later, the cancer recurred.
P: Oh, no …
L: And the daughter-in-law folded another thousand paper cranes (Figure 3) and made her wish for her father-in-law’s recovery.
P: And?
L: Once again, the man survived, and he smiled every day when he saw the colorful, shimmering cranes.
P: But perhaps the daughter-in-law’s kindness gave him an extra psychological boost to help him get better.
L: Humans crave connection, especially in times of darkness. Tangible gestures connecting people can make a difference.
P: Yes, I can see it now. I will remember. I will produce extra oxygen for you tomorrow. Kindness matters.
*Reference: One Thousand Origami Cranes. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_thousand_origami_cranes. Last accessed: August 14, 2023.
About the author: Plant and Linda Lemery llemery@gmail.com welcome reader comments.
