This is the time of year when we all take stock of our lives. We feel grateful for those we love and who love us, yet we also are planning how we might improve. Now, those plans for more exercise and a sensible diet may fade with the melting snow, but that’s less important than the fact that we want to be better.
The holiday season energizes my main resolution—which is the same every year—to be kinder. One act of kindness a day may not change the big, wide world, but it changes me, and it changes my world.
As a gift to all of you, here again is a video from the delightful Christmas movie Love Hard (Netflix). The classic holiday song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” has received some sharp criticism for lyrics that can certainly be interpreted as, at the very least, sexually suspect. This video reimagines the song in a clever way that allows us to enjoy it again.
Thanks Kareem for the reminder to be kind. The signature at the bottom of every email I send has a quote about kindness:
“…When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people…” Abraham Joshua Heschel
Kareem, for decades, I have admired you both as an athlete and a person who with intellect and thoughtfulness has been trying to make the world a better place. And after seeing interviews with you or the occasional thought piece you have written the last few years, I subscribed to your substack this year. Boy am I glad I did. In a world that has turned dark in so many ways that just a few years ago would seem unthinkable, every week you fill my in box with useful information, clarity of thought, truth and hope. Thank you. And happy holidays.