Hmmm, could one random act of kindness be the difference maker?
There have always been and will always be people who choose to get rich by dishonesty and preying on the unsuspecting nature of others. They devise elaborate schemes to defraud people of their money. But the practice of scamming seems to have become a immoral pandemic these days. Forget about COVID-19, the scamming pandemic is a bigger hazard.
Hardly a day goes back where the telephone does not ring once, or a text message pops up, or an e-mail appears from someone trying to hoodwink us and get their hands on our hard-earned money. Scammers are breeding like rabbits and getting ever more devious in their tactics.
I find myself wondering why this practice has mushroomed the way it has in the last few years. Technology does play a role. It gives scammers more tools to use and abuse. But technology is only an enabler. The question remains: Why are so many people or groups abandoning basic morals and becoming under the table thieves?
Forgive me for ragging on politicians, but I think they are one small part of the problem. So many of them are knee deep in scandals and engage in self-serving behaviour on a regular basis. They are setting a bad example which many ordinary citizens may be falling in line with: If it is okay for them to be corrupt, it is okay for me too.
It feels like we are devolving into an all-out, Darwinian survival of the fittest mentality in which the end justifies the nefarious means.
There is not much we as individuals can do to put the brakes on this disturbing escalation. But perhaps we can do something to recalibrate society’s moral barometer. It may be as simple as random acts of kindness to inject humanity and good will into the world.
When someone is waiting in a lane to pull out onto a busy road, pause and let them in.
When we are racing to the checkout with the shortest line in the grocery store and we see someone else headed there, stop, smile and wave them ahead.
When someone at work is stressed and losing ground on the backlog of work, offer to take a project off their hands.
When some has that “I can’t take much more of this” look, ask if they are okay and if you can help without being judgmental or needing to know the details of their problem.
Random acts of kindness may seem inconsequential. But each one corrects the moral barometer just a little bit. Added together they can become more than the sum of their parts and the beginning of a wave.
Give it a try. It takes so little effort but can make such a big difference.
~ Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet
~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .
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Tags: metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · moral barometer · scamsNo Comments