On Kindness

I was going through old papers from my much loved and much missed Oma today, and I found an unsent letter written by her in 1964 that said this:

After we had been there a few days some of the gals started getting catty. When this would happen I would just head for the hills. No, they didn't "try me" as they said - they knew they would not get any reaction. I'll be damned if I can get the point. Two of them would say some cutting remark (under the guise of humor) then sit and wait for the victim to strike back. Then later they would come to me (you would have thought I was the house mother) and say Oh, we don't mean any harm, it's all done in fun. If that's fun, hunting people - I'm going to look in the dictionary for a new word. Gosh, I'm human, I enjoy a good gossip with close close friends but this stuff of hunting people - I don't go for.

The more things change,  the more they stay the same. I think it's good to remember in the age of internet and reality TV that people are just as capable of cruelty as they always were - but also just as capable of kindness and integrity.