Did Will Smith Smack Some Kindness Into The World?

In a way, I hope so.

The Problem

Have you seen the memes? The world took the image of Will Smith smacking Chris Rock at the Oscars and turned it into a punch line (no pun intended)

Here’s the 3 cent recap in the event you don’t know what happened. At the Academy Awards Ceremony on March 27, comedian Chris Rock made a joke essentially mocking Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair loss. Her husband Will did not take kindly to the joke and walked up on stage and gave Rock a full on open hand smack across the face. Then sat down and proceeded to yell at Rock from the audience.

Chris Rock went on but the damage was already. Two high profile, over paid, grown men acting like school children.

I have problems with what both did.

I don’t care if you make jokes about Covid, Cancer, bad breath, or any other medical condition. (Except the special needs population). That’s what jokes do, they poke fun. But you can’t make jokes about a specific person’s specific medical condition.

On the other side, where was Will Smith’s self control? It would have made me angry too, but if I slapped a co-worker and the office Christmas party, I’d be ashamed to go to back to work, and I’d probably get fired.

Thank goodness my kids are too young to understand any of this.

How do I think Smith should have responded? I think he should have scowled, mouthed something nasty, and confronted Rock backstage, in private. After all, this was a private matter between the two actors.

The real issue with this situation is that things like this are now normal and it’s a joke to everyone. Instead of actually working to resolve our differences, we resort to physical violence.

I could go on about all this, but I won’t, and it’s not the purpose of my writing this article. Debating this topic is better suited to smarter people than me.

Instead, of talking about violence, I want to ask you, when was the last time you committed a genuine act of kindness?

Me standing on a street corner in October 2020 waving at traffic.

Sometimes, an act of kindness might be not smacking the snot out of someone who is running their mouth. The acts I’m talking about right now are the acts of generosity and consideration that we do without the expectation of some sort of reciprocation.

I’m as guilty as anyone expecting a reciprocation for my acts of kindness. I want a thank you for holding a door, or a wave for letting someone merge into traffic. You probably have your little expectations like these too. What happens if you don’t get it?

If someone doesn’t say thank you, it’s not going to ruin my day, and I won’t spend more than 10 seconds stewing over it. But for some, the little slight is enough to stop committing the tiny innocuous acts each day.

What about you? Do you say thank you to the cashier who just rang up your groceries or do you just grumble at the soaring prices?

One of my favorite stories of genuine care and kindness comes from a video I saw on goalcast.com about Lily the Barista. She poured happiness at the airport Starbucks on Christmas Eve.

I wrote about it 3 years ago so you can read it here.

The point is, every day, you can choose to act in kindness towards others or not. You can choose to act in a way that makes the world a happier place or not. You can start a cycle of kindness through small acts of kindness. And the kinder you are, the more you will attract kindness.

Let’s face it, the world today is crushing us all.

Today’s Jeopardy categories should be:

1. Pandemics
2. Wars
3. Inflation
4. Human Rights
5. Parenting
6. Traffic
7. Exhaustion

No one is exempt from these things unless you are living off the grid in some remote corner of the world. From First to Third World countries, at least three of the things on that list are affecting you.

You have the power to make a choice like I do. You can choose to act with kindness towards anyone and everyone whether they deserve it or not.

So what’s your decision?

I know what mine is but before I tell you, I want to ask you to think about your day. Is there some act of kindness that you could have committed but didn’t? Why did you skip the kindness?

My decision, is I want to help spread kindness. So I am committing myself to posting something kind, generous, and supportive everyday until the end of April.

I plan to write something new everyday along those themes. I hope you follow me and read my stories. I hope even one story touches you and you share it. I hope I become a better person by committing myself to this goal.

Thank you for reading and if you’d like, buy me a coffee to help keep me going.

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/kbkaus