Those of you that know me, and the few that read this blog, know that I had the utmost admiration of my dad. One of my biggest regrets is that I never told him how much I admired him. I really can’t think of any bad traits he had. If you had asked my mom, I’m sure she’d have said that he worked too much and work was too much a part of his life. That may be a true statement, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a “bad trait.” One of the things I most admired about him was his acts of kindness. I certainly don’t know everything he did, but I can make a pretty long list of people that he helped over the years.
But here’s the thing — those people never knew that the help they were getting came from my dad. I don’t think he ever told anyone that he did these things. He never told me — I found out through other people… and he certainly never told my mom.
A lot of us do nice things for others, but we usually mention these acts of kindness to someone else. After all, when we share our acts of kindness or generosity with someone else, it makes us feel like we are thoughtful, good people. So why wouldn’t we tell someone how nice we are and how we, ourselves are deserving of kindness?
I think any act of kindness is inherently good, but there’s something special about doing something kind or thoughtful and not mentioning it to anyone — ever. I’ve always heard that you should give for the sake of giving — not to receive something in return. That’s really what you’re doing, when you don’t mention your kindness to others.
I don’t think my dad ever regretted for a second that he kept his acts of kindness to himself. The world would be a much better place if everyone was like my dad.
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