Results for "kindness"
105 results found
All too often, when children are diagnosed with a disability or serious illness, their world fills with appointments and disappointments. They might face lengthy hospital stays and painful treatments, not to mention missed opportunities to be a kid. Madison Steiner—nicknamed “Peach”—is making a difference in these children’s lives by giving them the gift of recognizing their individuality that shines through their health conditions. At age 16, Steiner dropped out of high school, but she had greater ambitions. She earned her GED and a college degree in human services/social work studies. In 2011, she decided to put her caring on canvas—but instead of turning to a traditional art medium, she started painting custom sneakers for children living with serious health conditions. As her giving gained momentum, Steiner founded a nonprofit organization, Peach’s Neet Feet, based in her home state of New Mexico. Today, with the help of dozens of artists across the U.S., Peach’s Neet Feet provides 50 pairs of shoes to children each month. Each pair is customized for a specific child’s interests and courageous fight. The organization coordinates donations with more than 20 hospitals and other nonprofits nationwide. Peach’s Neet Feet only asks in return that the child and his or her family promise to pay the kindness forward at some point. Since 2011, Peach’s Neet Feet has donated more than 3,000 pairs of shoes and helped 4,000 families with other services, including care packages for children (with toys and art supplies), essentials for families facing lengthy hospital stays, “Peach Parties” and other events to raise funds and/or community awareness, and a support network for children and families. In 2012, Steiner’s work was honored as the winner of the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation’s Extreme Kindness Challenge, which gave Peach’s Neet Feet the opportunity to work with Storytellers for Good to produce a video about the shoes’ impact. Steiner was a guest speaker at the Chopra Foundation Sages and Scientists Symposium 2013, and Peach’s Neet Feet received the Sheckler Foundation’s “Be The Change” award in May 2014. In September 2014 she spoke at the 5th annual TEDxABQ conference in Albuquerque, N.M. Peach’s Neet Feet and Madison Steiner’s movement of kindness are gaining traction—making a happier world that celebrates the individuality of all children, one pair of unique shoes at a time.
Dolly Parton is loved around the world for her remarkable songs, acting, enthusiasm for life, successful business ventures and all she does philanthropically. Raised in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, she was the 4th of 12 children. She has long credited her father for her business savvy, and her mother's family for her musical abilities. One of her best-known business developments is Dollywood, a beautiful family-oriented theme park in the heart of the Smokies. Worldwide she has sold over 100 million records. Known primarily as a singer/songwriter for country songs, she also has crossed into the pop and rock genres as well as film soundtracks. She has written over 3000 songs. The awards and recognitions are numerous:
The Appalachian Trail is a rugged footpath that runs from Northern Georgia to Central Maine along the crest of the Appalachian Mountains. It passes through 14 states and all kinds of unpredictable weather. At age 21, Nick, an avid outdoorsman raised in Maine, decided the journey would be a good adventure. The trek takes an average of 6 months. Hiking 20 miles a day through the wilderness for 5 or 6 months will get you to a place you’ve never been before.
“I guess I wasn’t prepared for two things,” says Nick. “How hard sections of the trail were going to be, and all the small acts of kindness along the way that kept me going.” Those thru-hikers who complete the entire 2,200 miles talk about trail magic, little acts of kindness that happen at exactly the time they are needed. “I had been living on filtered water and granola bars for a month, my legs were aching, my body hurt, and I was having that once-a-week feeling of quitting. I came around a corner, and there was a bag of clementines hanging from a tree. A small thing at home, but on the trail, the taste of that fresh fruit was so amazing it kept me going for days.”
As Nick learned, the people who live in the towns that border the trail see it as a privilege to give. “People blindside you with kindness,” Nick says. They provide rides into town when hikers need to replenish. They open their homes to a fresh shower after months on the trail. And they offer encouragement to keep going.
Sweet oranges are one thing. But after Nick’s first two weeks on the trail, an unseasonable cold front hit Northern Georgia. Normal temperatures of 20 or 30 degrees Fahrenheit dipped down to 0, and the wind gusted through the branches above. Nick remembers doing situps in his thin sleeping bag all night to keep warm. “I got started early the next morning because I was so cold and had to get moving. I couldn’t feel my toes until noon. The next stop was a lean-to 20 miles away, and I decided that if the night was as miserable as the last, I would pack it in. It got dark, and really cold again. But when I entered the lean-to, somebody had brought up two down comforters---hiked the seven miles in from town hauling two comforters. I was so tired and relieved, I cried. I never slept better in my life.”
Nick would go on, experiencing small acts of kindness that motivated him and discovering that his own small acts of kindness kept others going, too. “When you have extra food, you share it. You share a campfire. When it’s raining sideways, you build a wall with rain ponchos. You work together. You encourage other thru-hikers to keep going,” Nick says. “Once you get through Virginia, you get this energy high because you know you are part of something greater that will support you. You learn to trust it. Not rely on it, just trust it. Your hope develops. And when it’s all over, you realize how great the people in this country are.”
Trail magic is kindness in action, kindness without being seen. Kindness that becomes the change we all need.
Kindness... PassItOn.com®
Leo Tolstoy, the great Russian novelist, explored the deepest workings of the human spirit. His sprawling epic, War and Peace, depicts the Napoleonic invasion of Russia through five aristocratic families. His words capture the sweeping scope of war and the intimate and tragic results on individuals. Interspersed in the story are philosophical reflections on human freedom, a theme he would return to in Anna Karenina.
Tolstoy drew from his own life experiences to explore deep human emotions. His parents died when he was very young, and despite being raised in a privileged society, he grew to detest the inequalities in human conditions. After witnessing the brutalities of war, he traveled throughout Europe to observe educational methods before returning home to build schools for peasant children. He managed a large farm and a large family, and he wrote prolifically. Yet even as his reputation as a writer grew, he experienced a crisis of faith.
At the height of his fame, Tolstoy was filled with despair over the meaninglessness of existence. He had achieved fame, wealth, and a loving family. But the sense that life was not fair gnawed at him. Intellectualism and philosophy left him feeling empty.
He began spending long hours away from his verdant farm, observing the local peasants. He noticed that despite their hard lives, their suffering and their lack of education, they possessed a quiet, unwavering faith. This common bond among the people gives them hope, guides the way they treat each other and helps them confront hardship and death.
At the heart of the realization that restored Tolstoy’s faith is the golden rule in nearly every belief system: “Do unto others only as you would have them do unto you.” This simple spiritual guide is the foundation of happiness. All life is interconnected and deserves our compassion and kindness.
“For nothing enriches the world more than kindness. It makes mysterious things clear, difficult things easy, and dull things cheerful,” Tolstoy wrote. In all his learning, he had discovered that the most intelligent people are always those who are most kind.
Be Smart. Be Kind… PassItOn.com®
Our modern culture tends to focus on past regrets and future uncertainty. It is the present where we need to focus, on who we are and what we can be. Something we could learn from the Ojibwe tribe in the mid-Northern states and Ontario, Canada. For the Ojibwe, names are less about what people call you and more for who you are. The name is a spiritual guide to lead through troubled times. The baby is brought before the name giver and a name is bestowed, usually based on a dream after a long fast. The ritual creates a time to be grateful for ancestors and a future of promise. A teenage boy who had grown close to an Ojibwe tribe was given a name in gratitude for his kindness to them: “Blue Between The Clouds.” When he asked what it meant he was told that even as the storm clouds gathered there was always a little bit of blue sky visible. “That is you, gratitude.”
What a difference it would make if each of us carried a name reminding us that we are Gratitude. Some cultures just better understand what a force gratitude can be---when it is given and when it is received.
In the midst of troubled times, we can still find gratitude. We can still express it in some way no matter our name. In June of 2020, a few months into the pandemic when the hospitalizations in New York City were overwhelming healthcare workers, a group of nurses flew in from the West Coast to lend a hand. One of the young nurses was assigned a mother of six children. She was on a ventilator, quarantined from her husband, and terrified. Carly, the young nurse decided to cheer her up by bringing a group of nurses together to sing “My Girl.” With a tube in her throat and needles in her arm, all the young mother could do was cry...and raise a few fingers to say thank you. There were tears all around, nurses who were grateful they could help and comfort, and a mother who was grateful they were there. At that moment, a little blue sky was visible between the clouds. With a simple hand gesture, the mother expressed her gratitude. “That little thank you changed me forever,” Carly says. “I went because I wanted to make a difference I came home grateful for what I learned.”
Gratitude moves us to be kinder. A widow who lost her husband in the midst of the pandemic felt alone. Her neighbors, grateful for over 50 years of friendship expressed their gratitude by delivering a box of fresh produce to her house every Monday during lockdown. It’s our gratitude for what we have and who has loved us that becomes the force to create the chain of good acts that bind us all together.
In the early morning quiet, when so many of us are awakened by the uncertainty of the coming day, we can find peace by mentally listing the things we are grateful for. The angst dissipates and we reach a new place in our life that we accept and appreciate. What’s next is to share. Send a random thank you note, make a call. Look around. There is always someone to thank. By doing so, we become something new; we are that blue between the clouds that makes all the difference in someone’s life.
Gratitude... PassItOn.com®
Although Enzo held several free-diving records — his deepest dive without the aid of breathing apparatus was 101 meters — it was the lives of sea creatures that concerned him most. Enzo dedicated his life to educating the world about the link between healthy seas and healthy humans. He often quoted Vangelis: “Until a man learns to respect and speak to the animal world, he can never know his true role on Earth.”
While diving in the Mediterranean with his daughters Rossana and Patrizia, Enzo was in the water preparing to dive. He felt a nudge on his back and turned to see a male dolphin beckoning to him. The dolphin dove, and Enzo followed.
About 12 meters down, Enzo was led to the dolphin’s mate, who had become entangled in a fishing net and would soon drown. Enzo quickly surfaced and returned with his daughters and a couple of diving knives. They freed the dolphin and helped her to the surface. He recalls: “As soon as she was on the surface, after breathing out foam and blood, she gave birth to a dolphin calf under the watchful eyes of her mate.”
Enzo and his daughters marveled at the miracle they had just witnessed. While they were still in the water, the male dolphin circled around and touched its beak to Enzo’s cheek, like a kiss of gratitude.
The world is full of opportunities that lead to miracles if we only follow those nudges. Next door is a neighbor who needs a smile and a conversation, a child who needs a little reassurance, or a young mom who just witnessed her own miracle and would love to share it with you. Or perhaps even one of our wild siblings, ready to share its world.
Be Present... PassItOn.com®
Margery Williams was an accomplished writer and author long before she wrote “The Velveteen Rabbit.” Born in London in the summer of 1881 to a wealthy and successful lawyer, she was the youngest child. She reflected on feeling separated from her siblings on account of the age gap, “To be the youngest of a family by as much as six years is almost like being an only child.”
Williams’ father died when she was 7, and the family moved to Philadelphia. Perhaps the trauma caused her to withdraw. She found solace in writing adventure stories and companionship with her pet mice, which she kept in her dollhouse.
Her early books attempted to capture the spirit of the day, but they were never popular. She found work writing sentimental Christmas stories for a publisher in London but always felt unfulfilled to the point of despising stories that either lacked imagination or too forcefully ignored reality.
“I wanted to do something different,” she recalled, “but did not know what it should be.” She hearkened back to her childhood in Europe and the frankness of the stories she grew up on.
All this time, Williams had been raising her child, Pamela, who turned out to be an art prodigy. The creativity the mother sought was manifest in her daughter. At 12 years old, Pamela had a smashing opening at a New York gallery, where she was heralded as a brilliant young talent and sold her work to the most prestigious buyers.
Williams watched as her innocent daughter was thrust into the world of adulthood too early, an accelerated grief that all parents feel when their children grow up. The fame brought a chance opportunity. The magazine Harper’s Bazaar commissioned a story from Williams, with Pamela as illustrator. The story featured Pamela’s forgotten stuffed bunny from her abbreviated childhood. The article was a success, and Williams went to work expanding it into a book. It was published in 1922 and has been in print ever since.
What is most endearing about the book is its ability to accompany young readers and their parents through the voyage of growing-up emotions. Imagination is inherent in children. So is kindness and wonder and a sense of adventure. But as children grow, too often they become victims of logic, trying to become reasonable adults who feel the responsibility to rein in unrealistic expectations and dreams. In the view of Margery Williams, stifling imagination too early leads to an unhappy life.
“But who can say where dream ends and reality begins?” the Velveteen Rabbit asks.
It is a question we should let children discover for themselves. Like the rabbit’s, their reality is that “love is the magic that makes a thing real.”
Be Real... PassItOn.com®
“When I was growing up in the hills of East Tennessee, I knew my dreams would come true. I know there are children in your community with their own dreams. They dream of becoming a doctor or an inventor or a minister. Who knows, maybe there is a little girl whose dream is to be a writer and singer. The seeds of these dreams are often found in books, and the seeds you help plant in your community can grow across the world.”
With these words, Dolly Parton encourages us not only to pursue our dreams but also to make a way for the dreams of children to come true. Her ability to inspire us through music and stories that connect us is the gift she has delivered throughout our lives and always when we needed them most.
“I Will Always Love You” reminds us that no matter how hard life can get, there is always someone who loves us. “Working 9 to 5” makes it easier for us to get through the grind of a workday. “Love is Like a Butterfly,” with its lilting melodies, encourages us to cherish each moment we experience with the person we love because you never know when it will end. And “Unlikely Angel,” about redemption and healing, is something we all need these days.
Dolly Parton is loved around the world not only for her remarkable songs but also for her acting, enthusiasm for life, successful business ventures and all she does philanthropically. Raised in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, she was the fourth of 12 children. She has long credited her father for her business savvy and her mother’s family for her musical abilities.
Worldwide, she has sold over 100 million records. Known primarily as a singer/songwriter for country songs, she also has crossed into the pop and rock genres as well as film soundtracks. She has written over 3,000 songs. She has 25 #1 hits, 44 top 10 country hits, and 10 Country Music Association Awards. She is in four music halls of fame: Nashville Songwriters, Country Music, Songwriters, and Rock & Roll. She’s been nominated for Grammy, Academy, Emmy and Tony awards, been honored by the Kennedy Center and received Jeff Bezos’ Courage and Civility award. Not bad for a young girl from Tennessee with a guitar on her shoulder and a dream in her heart.
Inspired by her father’s inability to read and write, Dolly started her Imagination Library in 1995 for the children within her home county. Today, her program spans five countries and gifts over 1 million free books each month to children around the world.
The next time you feel unloved or underappreciated, listen to a little Dolly Parton and know that your dreams, along with those of young children getting a book for the first time, are taking flight, made possible by a girl from Tennessee.
Kindness... PassItOn.com®
Liz Stookey Sunde carries on the cause of love and making us all better human beings through Music to Life. As the daughter of Noel Paul Stookey of the 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, she knows firsthand the power of music to change our souls.
Noel Paul Stookey wrote perhaps the most oft-quoted song lyric at weddings: “Whenever two or more of you are gathered in His name, there is Love.” Our world regularly feels unsettled, in need of love — and gifted troubadours like Noel create songs that unite us. Stookey’s career with Peter, Paul and Mary promoted peace and kindness, and now he has taken this vision for a better world one step further.
In collaboration with a diverse coalition of artists, businesses and nonprofit allies, Noel and his daughter, Liz Stookey Sunde, have founded Music to Life, a national nonprofit that offers musicians the training, resources and mentorship they need to become social entrepreneurs in their communities.
Communities face numerous health, education and human rights crises. Music is a great healer, and musicians can be activated to build bridges to positive change. Sunde and her team are ushering in a new kind of troubadour, building community partnerships and programs that address issues of economic, environmental and racial justice.
“We’ve all benefited from music’s restorative power,” Sunde says, “whether at a festival, in a concert hall or even as part of a musical ensemble. We want to empower the music-makers and help them build music-driven programs that revitalize their communities.”
Musicians, from rap artists to classically trained violinists, use their art to address a need in close collaboration with a community-based organization. Their stories are inspirational: a country artist with kids who struggled with substance misuse now facilitates musical healing for parents and caregivers at a local opioid clinic; an Indigenous rap poet who lost friends to suicide now tours nationally and conducts self-esteem workshops at juvenile detention facilities; and a bilingual performer from Latin America engages new American domestic workers in productions that help them adjust to their new home and connect with each other.
“At no time during the cross-cultural evolution of this planet has music ever had a more important role,” notes Stookey. “In an era of mistrust and confusing social signals, these musicians touch the people of our communities, bringing clarity and hope to a wounded world. I’m honored to play a small role in their journey and the work of my daughter.”
Music not only heals our souls and connects us as human beings; it awakens the divine within us, the yearning to bring peace to the world one relationship at a time. When we are moved by the tones that transcend language, we make room in our lives to love more. We find time to gather and share. We move to a better place and find ourselves believing “in something that we’ve never seen before.”
The Power of Music… PassItOn.com®
Pat Morita nearly missed the opportunity that defined his professional career. He was working on and off as a stand-up comedian, barely making ends meet after a successful role in “Happy Days.” When he showed up to audition for Mr. Miyagi in “The Karate Kid,” producer Jerry Weintraub couldn’t see the actor beyond his comedic roles and dismissed him. But Morita persisted, growing out his hair and beard. When he finally read for the part, Weintraub was sold, and the rest is history.
Morita’s life was anything but easy leading up to his seminal role. At 2 years old, he was separated from his parents and languished in a hospital until he was 11 due to tuberculosis and complications. He spent most of the time in a full-body cast. When he was released, he was detained with his family in an internment camp until World War ll was over. His family had to rebuild their lives, and Noriyuki Morita, nicknamed “Pat” by a priest who visited him often in the hospital, went to work to support them.
He worked his way up at Lockheed, working with engineers and programmers on missile projects before experiencing burnout. Perhaps he wanted to overthrow his heavy, dark childhood by making people laugh. Whatever the reason, Morita started working as a stand-up comedian in clubs around Sacramento and San Francisco. It was a grind. At one point, when he was out of money and prospects, comedian Redd Foxx stepped in and loaned him $3,500. It was a godsend, but so was Foxx’s friendship. Perhaps there would be no Mr. Miyagi if it weren’t for the kindness of the irascible Fred Sanford.
After a few bit parts in movies, Pat landed the role of Arnold on “Happy Days.” It was seemingly a role that would change his life, and it did. But Morita was typecast, and when the show ended, he couldn’t find work due to his ubiquitousness as Arnold. It was at this low point that he pursued the role of Mr. Miyagi.
“The Karate Kid” allowed him to reveal a bit of who Pat Morita is: a kind and patient mentor who cares deeply about teaching kids where they come from and how to overcome their circumstances as well as their prejudices. Morita’s later work focused on documentaries about the war, the sacrifices it entailed and the need to know our history so we can learn from it.
Noriyuki “Pat” Morita will always be remembered as a gentle and giving soul. His childhood and his family’s incarceration could have driven him into a bitter place. But he chose to find the good in people and in his life.
Be Happy… PassItOn.com®
Drive into the parking lot of any major cancer hospital, and you will be greeted by a small village of RVs. Families bring their siblings and children to the hospitals for weeks-long treatments. Families make the trek from hundreds of miles away and remain close to their loved one by setting up camp in the parking lot.
Getting the best care for a rare form of cancer is paramount. But for a typical child living in rural America, the most effective care is more than a few hours’ drive away. And if the cancer needs regular treatment and check-ins, the cost of travel can be prohibitive.
For Itzy, the care she needed was a full state away, in Colorado. Lucky for Itzy, there is Angel Flight, an organization of pilots who volunteer their time and their aircraft to fly patients like Itzy to the hospitals that benefit them most.
Pilot and volunteers Nancy and Kosta Constantine deflect the credit: “We play such a small part. Certainly, the doctors in Kansas and the children’s hospital, they’re a miracle for her.”
Itzy’s mother Mirna disagrees. “Nancy and Kosta are my angels. Just out of the kindness of their heart, wanting to be here for us, for something so terrible that you know the outcome of it, but you know God shows his face through wonderful people.”
Lifting the weight of worry associated with travel expenses is a huge blessing for Mirna. And Itzy has become a part of the family for the pilots. They were there when Itzy rang the bell, celebrating being cancer-free. “For me, it was a relief knowing that she was at the end of her treatment,” Kosta says.
Angel Flight has completed 36,000 flights in 29 years, logging 17 million nautical miles. In addition to flying cancer patients to hospitals, they deliver children with special needs to camps, as well as supplies for disaster response efforts.
Seeing the glistening aircraft and a friendly, private pilot can be like seeing an angel when you are a young child, uncertain of the future. And in the broad smiles on the pilots’ faces, it is apparent just how much joy there is in taking a child into the heavens, giving wings to wishes that seemed all but impossible before they boarded the plane.
“Passengers are always so appreciative of my efforts,” one Angel Flight pilot says. “What they don’t understand is that I love to fly, and taking them to their destination is fun for me. The real sacrifice would be if I had to stay on the ground.”
Staying on the ground may be the most difficult thing any of us has to do after being airborne in a small plane, soaring among the clouds. Flight is a miracle. And flying someone toward the hope of a better day is even more so.
Take Flight… PassItOn.com®
Black Beauty is perhaps the most beloved horse of all time. The book named for him holds a special place in our hearts because it is narrated by Black Beauty himself, giving us impressive insight into how a horse might really feel.
Readers follow Black Beauty’s life from joy-filled foal to beleaguered workhorse to restful retiree. The book, which sheds light on the mistreatment of animals in the late 1800s, served as a catalyst for new laws that protected horses. But it was also Anna Sewell’s story.
Sewell was born in Great Yarmouth, England. She enjoyed a pleasant childhood until age 14, when she injured both her ankles in a fall. These injuries led to a debilitating condition that limited her mobility for the rest of her life. But in a way, this was her first gift. Relying on horses as her mode of transportation put her in close contact with these wonderful animals. She was seen often in horse-drawn carriages and occasionally on their backs. This intimate association deepened her empathy for these animals and contributed to the profound tenderness in her writing.
Toward the end of her life, Sewell struggled to even sit up for long periods of time. She embarked on writing as a way to pass the time. As she focused her work on the animals she had come to love, she hit upon the idea that a horse’s story is best told by the horse itself. And what better story than the entire life of Black Beauty, narrated by an empathetic voice that understood adversity as well as kindness, work and well-earned rest, abuse as well as love?
Sewell passed away just five months after the publication of Black Beauty. She never saw how the book would endure for generations, with tattered copies passed on from mothers to daughters and fathers to sons. Fifty million copies have been sold, and countless hearts have been touched.
For Sewell, being able to put emotions into words was the balm needed for an ailing heart and the invisible bulwark against depression. Sewell’s gift to us is her ability to make her life worth living. She taught us this lesson through the thoughts of a horse that understood the heartbreak of separation from loved ones, the physical abuse of a cruel world, and the tender, loving touch of the angels in our lives.
“It is good people who make good places,” Black Beauty tells us.
For Sewell, the reward was the writing itself. For us, it is the moments curled up with the little ones we love — and more deeply understanding the emotions we share by reading about a horse that is really all of us.
Beauty… PassItOn.com®
“I met Muhammad when I was 6 years old,” Yolanda Ali remembers. “I knew then that there was something special about him. Just the way he carried himself, the way he treated people.”
Yolanda Ali would eventually marry the man who graced the cover of seemingly every magazine throughout a career that took him from a teenage gold medal winner to the heavyweight champion of the world. But it wasn’t his prowess and showmanship that attracted her to him. It was his heart.
“We were walking together one day in Los Angeles on our way to a juvenile detention center Muhammad wanted to visit. A man passed by going the other direction. Suddenly, Muhammad stopped, ran back to the man and gave him all the money he had in his pocket. I asked why he did it — the man didn’t ask for it. And Muhammad just smiled and said, ‘He looked like he needed it.’ That was Muhammad. He wanted everybody to be happy.”
The world was in turmoil for most of Muhammad Ali’s life. Race relations were strained. The Vietnam War burned in the distance and on living room TVs. Labor disputes, political firestorms, the grind of everyday living during years of high inflation took their toll on the daily interactions of people everywhere.
Muhammad Ali had been the target of more than his share of unwarranted attacks. “He met hate head-on with compassion,” Yolanda says. “And it never failed him.”
Perhaps the relationship that most epitomizes the character of Muhammad Ali is with Howard Cosell, the bellicose broadcaster with the stiff delivery and standoffish demeanor. Ali would muss Cosell’s hair, play games with him and draw him down off his tower. The two came to love each other.
“Muhammad could get through to anybody,” Yolanda says. “Whether it was talking a man off a ledge of a high-rise or jetting off to Iran to negotiate the release of prisoners, he cared about people, he cared about the outcome. Whoever he talked to, whether a child at a hospital or a political diplomat, Muhammad would touch you. It was his way of connecting, just that human touch.”
“Muhammad made everybody around him a better person. Just to be around him made you want to be more compassionate, more kind,” remembers Greg Fischer, former mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, Ali’s hometown.
“He wanted to serve people,” Yolanda adds. “The Ali Center is a reflection of that. And the Muhammad Ali Index is his way of teaching compassion. He was a great teacher.”
Yolanda took up the torch decades ago, not only honoring her late husband’s vision, but forging ahead with the tools that make it possible.
“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth,” Muhammad Ali said. Yolanda is the epitome of the kind of rent-paying tenant the earth needs. She is using the Muhammad Ali Index to influence cultural trends by measuring baselines of human behavior in communities and identifying areas of focus.
“You have to know what kind of help a community needs in order to be effective,” Yolanda says. Like a trainer helping an athlete develop specific muscles, the Muhammad Ali Index identifies the “muscles” in a community that need work, measures the progress and pushes toward the best outcome. Impact partners then organize volunteers and resources specifically targeted at addressing the identified needs.
“You lose nothing when you fight for a cause,” Muhammad Ali said. “In my mind, the losers are those who don’t have a cause to fight for.” Yolanda adds: “We all have something to give: a moment, a smile, a conversation, a handshake. The cause for all of us is to make the world around us a little better because we are here.”
Fight For Compassion… PassItOn.com®