Ms. Sammon, however, is one of those who perform the kindnesses that make communal life possible -- gently putting drops into the eyes of an elderly woman, for example, and listening sympathetically to the disjointed complaints of another.
The book's final chapter might describe thoughts that "fill the mind of a man who has lost everything, and who has withdrawn inside himself and found nothing of his own to cling to", but Pheby nevertheless performs a kindness on Schreber's behalf.
Rather, "Do the Kind thing" asks consumers to perform acts of kindness — deliberately instead of randomly — that are tracked through Kind cards bearing code numbers.
Some said, "Let Him create man," and some said, "Let Him not create man".... Kindness said: "Let God create man, for he will perform acts of kindness".
Yet they perform acts of kindness, too.
Positive psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky has shown that people who perform acts of kindness (five acts on a single day each week) tend to feel happier after six weeks.
Future recipients of the award will include those whose contributions exceed the boundaries of their profession, those who have contributed to building bridges across the community, and those who consistently and selflessly perform acts of kindness.
This is a world where good people can be forced into acting badly, and ostensibly bad people perform acts of kindness and heroism; where the guilty go free and decent men are spurned and punished; where the wise are baffled and the stupid go accidentally to the heart of the matter.
Half the children studied were asked to perform acts of kindness - food sharing, or giving hugs for example - and half were asked to keep note of pleasant places they visited.
We need to collectively release the pressure to perform and choose kindness over judgement.
The other students were asked to perform acts of kindness, such as sharing their lunch or giving their mom a hug when she felt stressed by her job.
