Published by Peter Bashaw on 29 Jun 2009
District 7040 June Newsletter - Rotary Fellowship Month
REMEMBER AS ROTARIANS CHARACTER COUNTS:
If you were arrested for kindness, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
Here are some other wise words about kindness:
“Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away.”
– Sir Arthur Helps
“You will regret many things in life, but you will never regret being too kind or too fair.”
– Brian Tracy
“Don’t wait for people to be kind. Show them how.”
– Anonymous
“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.”
– Oscar Wilde
“That best portion of a good man’s life: his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.”
– William Wordsworth
“Kindness is loving people more than they deserve.”
– Joseph Joubert
“We are made kind by being kind.”
– Eric Hoffer
“Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”
– Benjamin Franklin
“You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.”
– Theodore Isaac Rubin, M.D.
“Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true.”
– Robert Brault
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
There Are No Senseless Acts of Kindness
I agree with Abraham Heschel who said, “When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.”
Henry James was more emphatic: “Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.”
In 1994, Dr. Chuck Wall, a professor of human relations and management at Bakersfield College in California, came up with a concept that turned into an influential movement. Weary of hearing about “senseless acts of violence,” he began to teach and talk about “random and senseless acts of kindness.” The idea was simple: The best response to a world coarsened by selfishness and cruelty is individual acts of kindness. Now there’s a movement and website devoted to promoting random acts of kindness.
In 1999, Catherine Ryan Hyde wrote the novel Pay It Forward, which later became a movie, that built on Dr. Wall’s initial inspiration. It starts with a teacher’s assignment: “Think of an idea for world change, and put it into action.”
Trevor, the 12-year-old hero, comes up with an idea to do something “real good” for three people. All he asks for in return is that each recipient of kindness “pay it forward” by doing a good deed for three other people. If you do the math, it’s clear that such a plan could quickly change the world.
Whether acts of kindness are spontaneous as advocated by Dr. Wall or premeditated as proposed by Ms. Hyde, they’re certainly not senseless. On the contrary, they’re the best proof of good sense. Every person can send forth ripples of kindness and compassion simply by being nice.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
This month is Fellowship Month, some I will highlight the fellowship of the 100th Rotary International Convention in Birmingham UK:
Busy at the Montreal 2010 Booth, over 3500 registrants all ready.
East Meets West the Korean “Little Angels” Opening Ceremony
Korean Dancers
Korean Fan Dancers
Meets West!
Next to the flags of the 200 nations and territories of the Rotary World, Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General addresses Rotarians at the Opening Plenary. Thanking Rotary for its work, he told the story of a UNICEF worker fatiqued during trip to Africa rejuevenated seeing a group of Rotary Volunteer headed for a National Immunization Day assignment.
President Lee speaking at the Opening Plenary, told how he was drawn to his goal of eradicating child mortality when he looked into a small hut in an African village to see both a mother and small baby dying of starvation. The mother too malnurished to give milk and the bady too weak to cry.
Years later he was encouraged by what Rotary could do when he saw the impact a water filter could have to a family in the Dominican Republic.
Dr. Jane Goodall, who spent her life observing chimpanzees in the Gombe Game Preserve in Tanzania, explain how her Institute is now involved in poverty eradication, human rights, health and environmentalism when she observed the forests being cut and land devastated as man tried to cope with the conditions of its population.
“ON TO MONTREAL 2010″ WAS THE CRY!
Congratulations to Convention Chair Dr. Bob Scott and our own HOC Chair PDG Linda Bradley for a excellent “On to Montreal” Presentation. WELL DONE! And Thank You to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officers. They were a hit of the Convention.
IN CONCLUSION, THERE IS ONLY ONE THING I CAN SAY! THIS PAST YEAR HAS BEEN A GREAT EXPERIENCE. I THINK WE AS A TEAM HAVE MADE PROGRESS AND MADE DREAMS REAL. WE HAVE STARTED ON OUR WAY TO LIVING A LIFE THAT MATTERS. I THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT, ESPECIALLY THIS YEARS PRESIDENTS, DISTRICT OFFICERS AND ASSISTANT GOVERNORS. I WISH ARNOLD LAWRENCE AND HIS TEAM ALL THE BEST AND PROMISE MY SUPPORT.
A Person of Character
