Kindness

Small acts, mostly unwitnessed, and why the smallness is not a flaw in them.

• Wishing someone well when you do not want to

  The easy version costs nothing. The version that counts is aimed at the person who got the thing you wanted, and it is genuinely difficult.

• Against the ripple

  Small kindnesses do not spread outward and change the world. What they do is smaller, more local, and worth considerably more than the story we tell about them.

• The wish that goes to someone else

  Wishing for a stranger costs nothing and returns nothing, which should make it the first thing anyone drops. People do it anyway.