Be Kind Or STFU

I know this idea makes the rounds through blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and all other forms of social media, all the time.  It just doesn't get put into action often enough by enough people.

People need to learn to be kind to one another.  You don't know what the other person is going through.  You don't know what battles that person is fighting or the issues that affect EVERY...MOMENT...OF...THEIR...LIVES!

That elderly person shuffling along through the mall ahead of you mumbling to themselves.  Maybe they are recently widowed and missing their partner of several decades and talking to them (to their memories) is how they cope.  That Mother who is ignoring her child's temper tantrum.  Could it be that she is teaching him/her that a tantrum will not get them what they want?  That frazzled looking couple with a child who is yelling, touching everything in sight, and just seems like a brat?  Maybe that child has Autism or Sensory Sensitivities or any other number of disorders or illnesses.  The Mom who's baby just had a baby of their own.  The neighbour that keeps to themselves to the point of avoiding people.  Have you ever thought they might have social anxieties or depression?  An illness?  Is being abused?  Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Do you ever stop to think about what it takes for some people to just get up in the morning?  The effort it requires to crawl out of bed, get cleaned up and to get presentable enough to be seen in public?  Whether it is due to illness, age, mental disorder, fatigue, grief...it all affects the day to day living of a person.  You can't see the weight this person is carrying.  It could be weight they completely put on themselves but it dictates everything in their life.  Maybe, like me, they don't ask for help.  They CAN'T ask for help.  They lack faith in the people around them so they can't trust that the help offered will actually be there.  Can you even fathom the amount of people who suffer in silence?

People need to learn to be kind or they need to learn to just Shut the F*CK Up!