The hashtag kindness has 9.5 million posts on Instagram. Darkness, by comparison, has 8.5 million posts. I wish I could say they are night time nature photos. I didn’t even want to go down the path of more sinister search terms. I try not to live in a bubble, but some things are better left chained in the basement...
Little known fact: I have the Evil Dead trilogy on DVD. The first movie came out in 1983, when I was just eight years old and probably still believed a possessed human could reach out and grab my ankle through a trapdoor in the floor. As time went by, I developed an appreciation not only for the campiness of these movies, but the wicked humor of Bruce Campbell. It didn’t hurt that the Foo Fighters parodied the original film in the video for one of my favorite songs, “Everlong”.
The third and final film of the original series was titled “Army of Darkness”, which is why horror movies even came to mind as it relates to kindness. The plot of the movie is irrelevant; Bruce Campbell’s character, Ash, was usually more concerned about saving the pretty girl than he was being kind. The connection came when I was referred to this week as being a kindness warrior, a position for which I will gladly suit up.
I interviewed with Nicole Phillips on Wednesday for an upcoming episode of her Kindness podcast. She highlights so many amazing people who are bringing good into the world. It is easy to feel out of my league when I listen to some of the episodes. She interviews celebrities, CEO’s of large non-profits, people doing amazing things with their time. Regardless of our reach, we all have something in common: making kindness a priority.
One of the recent episodes featured Lu Parker of Be Kind & Co. Something she said spoke right to me. She talked about how she’d sat on the idea of her company and allowed it to just be a small passion project for two years. Only recently has she ramped up her efforts and hired a team to broaden their reach. To be clear, she was living by example, but now she is ready for battle.
If I also seem more vocal lately, it’s because I am. I’ve been in training for a little over a year, since launching this little kindness blog in June 2019. Even though I have honored pauses and slowed down on content creation, I’ve worked on strengthening my throat chakra. I’ve worked on holding space for others. I’ve fortified my armor for those who seek to dim my light.
I am on a mission to build community. To amass a growing army of those who want to be more brave with their own stories and honor others’ stories with compassion. To pick up those who are weary of fighting the good fight and feeling that they can't make a difference. There is strength in numbers.
It has been too long since I’ve watched Ash take on the evil spirits to remember exactly how he defeats them all, short of wielding the chainsaw he used to replace his possessed hand (campy, remember?). Being brave and kind means speaking up and speaking out, casting our votes for change, and remembering that words are weapons, ones we should choose wisely and with compassion. It is giving back to the community and spreading ripples which can reach far and wide.
I’m not naive enough to think that there will be an end to “good vs evil”, but I am committed to changing the tide.
“With what we have, I promise you that we’re marchin’ on” - One Republic