OT: The Kindest Person You Know

I also admire kindness. I also often fall short in being kind. 

Society values winning over kindness and that sets up a lot of easy traps to fall into.

Shit, EYB. I was just writing up a negbang when you posted this. I don't think it's possible for the substance of our two threads to be further apart. 😊

I will say that I second everything you said about Seth and Craig. You can just feel the good vibes flowing from both of them. One person I can think about is my uncle who just passed away recently. Never heard him say a bad thing about anyone. Always had a smile on his face. And even though he didn't really have a pot to piss in, he'd always do what he could to help you out.

BTW, I'll bet you're a damn good person. Snark doesn't make you bad unless you intend to hurt. 

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle." -Plato

My husband is deeply kind. I've never heard him say anything mean-spirited or petty about anyone. He thinks about other people's feelings, is a very good and loyal friend, has lunch regularly with his elderly mother. He's the nicest person I know. I'm definitely more snarky and judgmental. (Edit: I had to add that he is very kind to animals, and became a cat person when he met me, loving my cats as much as any previously dog-only person could. He's the kind of person who notices when someone is having difficulty with something, like a heavy object or pushing a door open, and will stop to help them, almost absent-mindedly, as if he's just programmed to do that. He remembers all his friends' birthdays, too. Like I said, he is just deeply kind. Lest you think he's some kind of a pushover, he's not. He's a security guy at Wrigley and will throw you the hell out if you're breaking the rules.) 

EYB, very interesting OP.  I’ll play.

mom died when we were kids and my best friend’s mom was my mom for most of my life.  If you can imagine a true doppelgänger for Kathryn Hepburn, wicked smart (U of M grad, don’t you know), loving, generous to a fault, made the most amazing cookies and countless days I sat in her kitchen after sports or school or whatever.  I was considered the fifth son of the family. Oh yeah, she’d smoke a pipe in the evening.

she passed right after our 4th was born and never got to meet most of our children.  I would have liked that a lot, and I’m sure she would’ve, too.

My mom. With five children, no money, an ambitious husband, and moved far from her family and friends, sometimes she was probably pushed by life, at least I think so now, but she stayed sweet and nice.

This is from back when there were a few trolleys still running in NYC. I will never forget this.

I lived in a decent neighborhood that bordered another sorta, kinda meh neighborhood that bordered a holy crap neighborhood. There was a deli owner whose shop was right on the corner between nice and meh. He was, to me, a very nasty, grumpy guy. Barely tolerated kids like me (we were quiet kids from the neighborhood), he just wanted our coins. 

Every day, a rambling, mostly crazy woman, the kind that loudly argues with no one, the kind that even loses the argument with the voices in her head, would walk in, sit at the counter and order a coffee with a "toasted bagel and a schmear" (that's cream cheese for those that are confused). The owner would patiently serve it to her, she would quietly sit and enjoy her meal, sometimes get a refill on her coffee.

And. After she was done, she would say something to him along the lines of "good", or "fuck you", or anything in between and just walk out, never paying. By the time she got to the corner, she was back in her loud arguments.

I watched this go on for probably the dozen or so years I lived there. He never called the cops, she never was a problem in the deli. It was just the pattern at the corner deli.

In those moments, the man had a heart of gold.

I studied in undergrad at a school not University of Michigan, but also on the Great Lakes, so prone to cold, unpredictable weather. It was the 1980s, so to use a computer, you had to use a university computer lab. I was in a university lab at 3:00 am finishing a project. All of a sudden a buddy walks in, having trudged 2 miles across campus in six inches of snow and howling winds to deliver an apple he'd taken from the cafeteria earlier that evening. I asked what he was doing here. He just said I knew you'd be here; figured you'd probably be hungry. He left the apple and went home. Who does that?

My Mom. She has helped me and continues to help me in so many ways. She is the first person her friends call if they need advice.

Prolly my dad. 🤷

Honestly, xm. Guy makes himself and his farm available to anyone on the board. Genuinely good dude.

My wife.

We're celebrating our 43rd anniversary tomorrow, and how someone as kind as she is has been able to put up with a cantankerous, pessimistic, vile-tempered, loud-swearing, intolerant jerk for that long is amazing.

My dad was incredibly kind and generous. He always ensured the people around him were taken care of and was very sweet with animals. His friends, family, and coworkers always remarked on how their lives were improved by his generosity and sense of humor. I think he was a good example of the difference between "nice" and "kind" because he was often far from polite and could be a rude and bitter old man!

Can't think of anyone current. The kindest person I ever knew was my friend's dad. He genuinely wanted to know all about me the first time I came over to his house. Even told his wife that maybe they could help me find a job. I cried like a baby when he died. I was sort of in shock when my friend told me, but everything came out when I saw him in his casket. Heard Elton John's Funeral for a Friend on the car radio as we drove to the cemetery. Was really cool, though sad too.  Forty-plus years later and I've never met anyone like him. He was from Finland.

I had the great fortune of taking my daughter on a 2 week “business” trip to India and Thailand. Can’t tell you how many kind and generous people we came across. Can’t recall a single ass hole on the entire trip. 

Bob passed away a few years ago, and in life was very humble, unassuming, and kind to everyone. He was a secretary where my wife worked at a local university. 

Late in life he got sick and married his nurse, and she provided great comfort to him, and they were devoted to each other. He adopted her daughter and became a wonderful influence in her life. Unfortunately, they only a few years together before he passed.

Then came his obituary. It was a bizarre Walter Mittyish list of exploits that were wholly fictional . He invented heroic deeds in Vietnam (he never served), advanced degrees he never earned , and a position at the university as a professor (as mentioned earlier,  he was a secretary). 

May he rest in peace.

Both my dad and my wife are incapable of meanness. I'm lucky to have spent so much of my life in their presence. I'm not anywhere near so virtuous, but they make a powerful example that hauls me up often when I am given to resentment or sarcasm. 

I too appreciated this question. 

My Dad's best friend Jim. He was a Godly man, but his kindness went far beyond that. He took care of his elderly mother (90s) and also assisted his wife, who had MS. I never even saw the man get angry.

We used to play golf.....Dad, Jim, and I. In my teen years, I couldn't handle my temper after a bad shot, and Jim was always the one to calm me down. I totally looked up to that man, and I always will. What a great person and role model.

My mom, and my wife's step mom. They have the most beautiful souls that I have ever encountered. It makes me tear up sometimes when I think of how kind and sweet they are. 

Probably my brother-in-law, which is a good thing, since he's a 6'5", 250 lb former Marine, and I'd hate to see him angry.

I've known him for over 30 years now, and I can't recall a single incident of hostility.

Urban Meyer is Kind of the biggest asshole on the planet.

Yeah, I know.  Nailed it. 

Definitely my parents. They've had my back forever. Too many reasons to list.