“If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.”
Francis Bacon
The manner in which we treat strangers surely has much to say about our inner constitution. We are caught up in a rat race where we daily encounter many strangers; we rub our shoulders with strangers and then we part ways, as we started – as strangers. Germaine Greer said that every time a person unburdens his/her heart to a stranger, he/she reaffirms the love that unites humanity. This will be the essence of our meditative topic for the day. We should scarcely ever find a stranger whom we did not leave as a friend. It is believed in many cultures that whenever a stranger enters a gate, never thereafter should that person leave as a stranger.
Do not be the person who, in seeing his mother starve to death on a path, kicks her in the stomach to clear the way; in other words, do not devote your time giving wrong directions to a total stranger who claims to be lost. Remember, friendliness and hospitality towards strangers are more important than grandeur. Aesop said that no act of kindness is ever wasted, irrespective of how small it might seem to be. In our pursuit of love, the words of Lao-Tzu rings very clear. Lao-Tzu said that kindness in words creates confidence; kindness in thinking creates profoundness, and kindness in giving creates love. Let us embrace this philosophy!
Hesitate not in giving a smile,
to a stranger passing you by…
That smile may carry the stranger a mile,
And lift him or her, up high...
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