I’m convinced that one day I’ll have to sell a body part just to afford a doctor’s visit. Or plead with this body not to fall ill even when it’s clearly breaking down 🤷‍♀️ The expense is bewildering.
It reminds me of when my son was very young and needed stitches after a playground injury. Then came the dressings as it healed. Finally, it was just a band-aid. And the band-aid cost ₹500 🤣 I could forget the injury, but not the cost of the band-aid. Like I said, it won’t be long before we’re trading one body part for another.
That’s the evolution of life, I suppose.
My daughter reminds me frequently that, according to her, I belong to the prehistoric age. To her, even the 90s are ancient. She shows me features on the phone and random app tricks, and I’m amazed at how quickly they master all the unnecessary things. The other day she showed me a simple feature on WhatsApp I didn’t even know existed. In my defense, I use my phone for basic needs and ignore most apps. But, if I’m to survive in Gen Alpha’s world, I’ll need to catch up.
Earlier today, I came across a message that’s been lingering in my mind. It spoke about kindness – how we can be kind to strangers and animals, but the real test of character is how kind we are to the people we live with daily. What we do outside, it claimed, is often image management.
To a certain degree, that feels true.
We’re constantly bombarded with public acts of kindness. People feel the need to film or document their good deeds. I do think that has its positives – it highlights hardship, draws attention to need, and sometimes inspires others. But there’s also the danger of it becoming performative.
And yet, not all kindness is staged. There are people who quietly extend compassion to strangers and animals without fanfare or applause. If you ask me, it isn’t always image management.
Still, I tend to agree that genuine kindness reveals itself most clearly within the walls of our own homes. I’m frequently convicted here – this is a major shortcoming. It’s far easier to be patient, polite, and generous with people we may never see again than with the ones we share our everyday lives with.
That is a bitter pill to swallow.
And, the so-called day of love is around the corner. I wouldn’t have remembered if not for the marketing hype announcing it everywhere.
If kindness becomes performance, and love becomes marketing, then what are we actually offering each other?
A thought I’m running with, are all relationships transactional?

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