11-12: A MidWesterner's Take

I am a yinzer proper.  I have no qualms about admitting the fact the fact that I didn't realize that "slippy" wasn't a word until my second year of university.  I'm okay with it.  One thing that Pittsburgh teaches us, is that Philadelphia is a horrible, horrible place to be, filled with desolation and despair.

Unfortunately, I think that my childhood musings were incorrect.  Especially, as my karma diary is making it all over Philadelphia!  In our third venture of the city, we hear from "A" who is a Midwestern transplant that is fighting to bring those values to the East Coast.

Three cheers for A!  Three more for kindness!

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Nov. 12, 2011

I’ve given quite a bit of thought to the subject of kindness lately.  You see, a couple of years ago, I moved from the Midwestern United States to the East coast.  This was a very large culture shock for me, because it doesn’t appear that the same standards of kindness apply out here.  It just seems that kind acts such as holding the door open for someone and every day conversations with strangers are things that are just done in the Midwest.  I’ve been told that we seem overly friendly and perhaps, not genuine, but I think these every day small acts of kindness are so important that they should not be overlooked.

It is because of this, that I try to make sure I do kind acts every day; holding the door or elevator open for people, telling strangers on the street that their bags are open and they are about to lose all of their papers, etc. Sometimes, it seems important to spend hours talking to friends who are hurting or have problems that need a friendly and non judgmental ear.

However, this wonderful journal idea has inspired me to take this kindness one step further.  Tomorrow, I will help out my church’s religious education program in making Christmas ornaments for under privileged youth to receive books for the holidays.

-A