(I will preface this with saying that I’m rather high right now. But I do think the general sentiment will hold up in the morning.)

The older I get, the more I value interactions by the amount of kindness involved in them.

I’ve always valued kindness. Growing up, I was lucky to have good role models, so it was easy.

Unfortunately, I think many of us learn from a young age that there are many situations in which kindness is not particularly valued by others. So we don’t really get rid of it, but we downplay it. It’s very strange when you actually think about it.

Anyway, it’s nice to be in a space where that sort of thing is actively curated. We’re all free to choose to interact with people who are not kind whenever we want. I imagine that many of us intentionally do so, and that can be very worthwhile in its own way. But it’s nice to be able to just be(e) and not worry about all that meanness.

I’ve been going on about kindness, and the rule is be(e) nice. I do think there’s a slight difference, but I’m quickly losing the vocabulary to describe it. I think niceness is perhaps easier to achieve when interacting with people one doesn’t know?