Good people and kindness

In Denver we have the light rail, kind of like a train. I call it the train. It's mass transit. And a couple of weeks ago the line running west opened. I am in love with taking this to work. I am totally fortunate that my employer buys me a pass. So last week I took it four days and this week I started taking it with my bike. So I ride to the station and then from the drop off point downtown I ride to work. It is totally awesome.

Yesterday I was waiting for a guy to get on the train and he stopped and motioned me to go. So nice. He waited until I got my bike on and he got seated and then started talking about how much he loves the light rail. I was in total agreement. We chatted until his stop and then he said something that was so refreshing:

"Thank you for you kindness."

Wow.

Mike and I are big fans of "The Amazing Race" TV show, the one where I think nine teams race around the world. Sunday was the finale and we watched the first half, in which one of our favorite teams was eliminated. In their goodbye video one of the women said something that hit me:

"We've traveled all over the world and everywhere we went their were nice and loving people."

Everywhere.

I agree with them. As an activist and as someone who tries to be a voice for all of the voiceless, it does seem sometimes that there are more "not loving" people than there are loving people. I try to bring love and kindness to every interaction I have. Not always easy. As a gay vegan who gives  a crap about little things like equality, animal torture, and oppression, I have gotten my share of hate, yelling and judgment. Some times it's right in my face and others it's behind my back.

Yet I still believe, as the women do who were on "The Amazing Race", that there are a lot of good people in the world. They might not be on the same path as I am, they might not know all about veganism or animal cruelty or the spiritual genocide of gay people, yet in their daily lives they try to do good. And like me, many of them try to be better people all of the time.

Food for thought.

Today I rode my bike from the office to get coffee. On my way back I was casually riding, listening to an awesome song and feeling blissful. I rode by anotherr guy on his bike, waved and said good morning. His smile covered his whole face. I don't know him at all. I don't know if he's vegan or gay friendly or cares about anything other than himself. I do know that on his way to wherever he was going this morning, he encountered kindness.

I hope you do too.

And I hope you show kindness in any form today.

Thank you for reading.