Editor’s Note: This week’s post is by my friend Tim Leadem who emigrated to Canada from the US during the Vietnam War. His post is a great compliment to last week’s exploration of what is ours to do to participate in the 2026 Midterm Elections. Enjoy!

“Better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of chaos” (from a 1627 collection of Chinese stories).

Well we certainly live in some interesting yet chaotic times. In such times it is easy to either tune out of current events or to throw one’s hands up in the air as a lamentation against things that we cannot control. Our democratic values and beliefs about equity, truth and virtue winning out in the end-all are under attack. There are wars that start up and seem to go on forever. People are caught up in all of this mess as we see prices increase for everything from carbon based fuel to groceries. Here in Canada we are facing an economic trade war for daring to stand up to tyrants and bullies.

Yes, we can protest and strive in small ways to make changes to the larger geo-political landscape that threatens to engulf us. We can join marches, rallies, or attend town hall meetings to show how we feel about the constant turmoil. Or we can choose a different approach.

If we can’t change the reality around us then at least we can opt to make our own reality. We could practice kindness wherever and whenever we can.

Real kindness can bring about change on a minute scale but it carries with it the propensity to affect everyone that we come into contact with in small but positive ways. When we look out and for one another, we bring our own sense of rightness into a world that often seems to be grounded in wrongness. It doesn’t take much- sometimes just a smile and a greeting -or helping someone in distress-or visiting shut ins and the sick- or giving clothing and food to the homeless within our midst.  

When we take the time to acknowledge the humanity in others we place value on human life, on dignity, civility and plain good manners.

Yes, change can happen in the ballot boxes through elections but why wait for that.  If everyone were kinder and more respectful of others, surely the world would take a turn for the better.

Kindness

There are no commandments
In the language of kindness

No words like
Shalt
Shalt not
Must 
Must not

There is only the acting on wings that fly across the soul
And land somewhere.

The beggar on the streets of some forgotten place, some city teeming with so many people
Most pass him by
Others may throw a coin in his direction like tossing a dog a bone
But the kind person stops and sees
And engages
Becomes the beggar for one instant

extends that act of kindness freely given. And bestows upon the other that singular gift of love in whatever form it may take 

Without hope of recognition 
without pity 
without any thought
Other than the revelation

That there is a life and a soul met upon the path

And then kindness enters with both an emptying 
And a filling
A lifting and a 
Falling
All at once
So that in one small corner of this vast universe
There is an unfolding and becoming that is
As it should be.