One of my favorite podcasts is Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History. This morning I listened to an episode entitled “I Was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me.” Gladwell provides several poignant examples of how small acts of kindness can have a surprisingly large cumulative effect – changing or even saving lives. He begins with an example of his home town in Canada adopting several “boat people” – refugees from the Vietnam War – with many community members helping with small acts of kindness. Another example is how one of the few people to escape and survive a Nazi concentration camp in Poland was aided by eleven separate and unrelated acts of kindness.
Gladwell also distinguishes kindness from generosity and sacrifice. Generosity and sacrifice involve surrendering something important to us, and taking a risk, for the benefit of someone else. In contrast, kindness is “entry level caring; just the temporary suspension of indifference.”
The central idea of Gather & Give is to accumulate small amounts of kindness from a group of people to have a surprising impact on our community. In my experience, we all care and want to help others. But it is difficult to find the time and opportunity in our busy lives. And as much as we would like to help, it is not always obvious how to make a real impact.
Gather & Give creates a time on our calendars and the mental space to act on our kind intentions in a fun, social and collaborative environment. We hope you will join us!