Fostering Kindness
What I saw: New Heart Sculpture on Castro Street in San Francisco’s Castro District. Seen on March 20, 2021.
Today I saw for the first time a new heart sculpture installation on Castro Street abutting the sidewalk at the entrance to the bank located at the corner of Castro Street and 18th Street in the Castro District of San Francisco. The sculpture is about three blocks from where I live and as I walked past it for the first time my thoughts were about kindness.
I had read previously about the history of the now iconic heart sculptures, but I had forgotten the specifics. So, I searched for some information and landed on A Brief History of the Hearts in San Francisco by Deanna Morgado.
When first appearing in 2004, this project was the brainchild of the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation, raising money with artistic contributions from some of the world’s most notable artists. Today, they continue to grace both visitors and locals with the message of human kindness, giving, and unity.
While the origins of the heart sculptures were inspired by the Tony Bennett song, I Left My Heart In San Francisco, with the initial purpose of raising funds for the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation, my instinctual reaction to think about kindness was not off the mark from their additional perceived purpose today.
I took the photo that sits atop this post this morning, then later reflected on the beautiful poem by Naomi Shihab Nye, Kindness. It begins,
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
Loss. A future dissolving. Desolate landscapes.
It made me think about what we collectively lost as the world faced the current pandemic together: the children who had more than a year of their short childhoods ripped from them; people who saw their jobs dissolve, thrusting some into a state of poverty they had never experienced prior; and futures that looked dark and bleak until the vaccines were developed that gave us all some hope.
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
Everyone lost something this past year. Some paid the ultimate price of their life, in many instances because of the incompetence of the prior administration and its leader who clearly held no compassion in his heart for the tens of thousands who would die horrible deaths as a result of his callousness.
Regardless of what level of loss you have felt, you have inevitably felt some loss. Perhaps you lost a loved one, a job, or at the least the freedom to hug and hold friends and loved ones without worry.
Nye’s poem suggests it is through loss that we can know what kindness really is, and if this horrific year we have all endured together can bring about any goodness, it is my desire that the loss fosters a sense of kindness in us all.
As we yearn for the pandemic to be in its last throes of existence, let us all be a bit kinder to each other, and to ourselves. Let us take the lessons of a worldwide virus catastrophe and have them teach us to replace hatred with kindness, bigotry with tolerance, and rage with love.
When I pass the heart sculpture in my neighborhood each day on my way to my morning coffee and breakfast spot, I will use that marker as a reminder to try and embody kindness, that day and every day. Find such a marker in your own life and use it to engender kindness as well. You and the entire world will be better off.
Peace.
Here is the entire poem, Kindness, by Naomi Shihab Nye.