World Kindness Day is November 13th, a celebration of how an act of kindness can cause a ripple effect. It was founded in Tokyo in 1997 to “highlight the power of kindness to improve individual wellbeing and social cohesion.”
You may not be aware of how your decisions affect others, but people are watching. They watch when you dismiss them, and they watch when you treat them with respect. Little acts of kindness are never forgotten, and it does not cost much. I like this quote from Mother Terese, “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”
When I taught at Roberts Elementary School many years ago, a few of the teachers gave the kids sticky notes and encouraged them to write something kind and stick it somewhere for a classmate or teacher on campus to find. That was one of my favorite days at school. The environment was transformed. Everyone had “Helper’s high,” the euphoric feeling people experience when performing acts of kindness for others and receiving them in return.
One kind young man had no idea the impact he had on me and my 76-year-old mama when he said yes to an act of kindness. It has been 20 years, and I still remember the moment he walked through the door at our cast party for The Wizard of Oz, performed at Center Stages at The Center for Arts and Sciences in 2005. I had seen the young man in his Brazoswood High School performance of Les Mis, so I asked him, “Would you sing a little of your Jean Valjean song for my mama? She loves Les Mis.”
“Sure,” he smiled and sailed into, “God on high, hear my prayer, take me now, to thy care…”
My mother began to weep. You see, my father had recently died. He loved Les Mis. He used to dance around the house singing, “Master of the house…”
Zack did not know the significance of singing this song to my little mama, or how profoundly that song would affect her, but it did not matter, he was humble and happy to do it. It left an “endless echo,” a memory and a respect for him that I have kept ever since. I have followed his career in Blue Water Highway and have held him in high regard as a decent human being and an excellent musician. It was a small act of kindness. It did not cost him much. Zack and the Blue Water Highway performed at The Center for Arts and Sciences in August. It was a beautiful concert, and he was the same warm approachable person I remember him to be as a teen.
A year ago, I was blessed with a ticket and backstage pass to the Jeff Goldblum jazz concert at the Hobby Center. In the same way, I was touched by the actor and jazz pianist’s kindness and his approachability. He took the time to ask something personal about each person who waited backstage. He took a picture with each of us and gave us his autograph.
When I think of the epidemy of kindness, besides Jesus who said, “be kind and compassionate to one another,” I envision Mr. Rogers who once said, “There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.”
Guess which country is consistently crowned as the world’s kindest nation…Canada. Kindness is a universal value. It is influenced by cultural norms and is critical in building social cohesion in a culture. Countries that value kindness will display hospitality, volunteerism, generosity, care for strangers, and empathy for others. This is a culture I want to be a part of.
Acts of kindness do not cost much: attention, compassion, and empathy. I guess they do cost something, they require us to step out of ourselves and look outward to others. On November 13th and every day, let your kindness echo.
*Published in Brazos Life, The Facts Newspaper on November 11, 2026
