How It Began

In late March, 2018, I wrote a letter to my local weekly newspaper, The Milton Courier.  The purpose of my letter was to highlight the kind deed of a good friend of mine.  Our community had been racked with negativity, back-biting, divisiveness and rancor at an unprecedented level. I felt and feel strongly that I needed to do what I could to showcase the goodness & kindness of our great community rather than focus and fixate on the negative.  Thus my letter - perhaps a feeble attempt - but it made me feel better than doing nothing. This great quote speaks to the issue, "When we reject the deeds of darkness and do everything in the light of day, we become light and, as light should, we give light to others by our actions." - Gregory of Nyssa in the Liturgy of the Hours.

Well, as God would have it, these things sometimes take on a life of their own. Perhaps, even, they are ordained.  The Courier rejected my letter. I was flabbergasted until I read to the end of the rejection where I was invited to write a column.  Never had this entered my head as a possibility.  I was intrigued by the idea and conversed with the Courier Editor to see how this might work.  The result is Cruz'n' for Kindness - an occasional column penned by yours truly and published by The Courier.

Recently, I felt directed to also publish this column in blog form and The Courier agreed with this idea.  So, this first post and a few subsequent posts will provide the history. Watch for a brand new post next week.

Courier Opinion – 3.29.18

Our View

CONTRIBUTE KINDNESS

“You are such a great contributor to our city.”

That was the message handwritten on a small piece of paper and mailed to the Milton Courier anonymously last month.

Below the message were the hashtags: #RAK#KINDNESS AND #CARINGMILTON. (RAK is Random Acts of Kindness and hashtags help people find content on social media.)

We took a photo of the message, used it as our Facebook cover and planned to keep it there until we found out who sent us the message. With a bit of detective work and some handwriting analysis, we identified who sent us the message, and when confronted with having committed a random act of kindness, the person confessed last week. It turns out our messenger had received a similar note, which in turn inspired our messenger to write notes.

As a newspaper, we, too, were inspired and had a great story - or so we thought until we realized the anonymity is essential. Think about it: You receive a note from someone who says you are kind or nice. You then start thinking about the people in your social circles. You might send one of them a note. You start think about people watching your behavior. The note reminds you to be on your best behavior no matter who is watching. Compelled by the argument for anonymity as compelling, we agreed to maintain the mystique of our messenger.

Conversely, we have seen many comments on Facebook that are unkind. People are not always putting their best face forward. With the upcoming election, neighbors have not been so neighborly.

At the start of last week’s city council and school board candidate forum, Milton Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Dani Stavarius spoke about kindness: “… We all have different views. That is fine. That’s what makes this world go round. But it’s disheartening what’s been going on in our community. … I think it is time we kind of all come together instead of being against each other. …” She asked the forum audience “to please be kind and respectful to all of (the candidates) and to listen with an open mind.” The audience responded with applause and fulfilled her request.

Also last week, we received a letter to the editor submitted by Jon Cruzan. In his letter he wrote: “I try to make a habit of catching people doing things right and, when I do, letting them know about it. It makes them feel good, it makes me feel good, and it colors the world in a more positive way.” We rejected Cruzan’s letter, hoping instead Cruzan would be willing to write a column about his habit. Cruzan’s first “Cruz’n’ for Kindness” column appears in this week’s Milton Courier below. It Is not a coincidence that Cruzan received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Milton Area Chamber of Commerce last week.

Maybe while out and about, Cruzan will catch you doing something good and write about it. #RAK