I have a daily calendar that has pictures of dogs with a famous quote each day.
I have really enjoyed reading these quotes, some are pure entertainment, meant to get a laugh; others really make a person think.
The quote for June 4 really had me thinking so I looked up the author.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) was many things, British historian, satirical writer, essayist and teacher are a few of his accomplishments.
He must have really liked history because he wrote three volumes on the French Revolution and six volumes on the history of Frederick II of Prussia called Frederick the Great.
He also has over 150 famous quotes, many of them would be about kindness, including this one.
“A laugh, to be joyous, must flow from a joyous heart, for without kindness there can be no true joy. “
My first thought was how beautiful and true that was. My second thought was ‘how can we get bullies to understand this?’
My third thought was how sad it was that there was a need for him to be saying this so many years ago.
Bullies think they are enjoying themselves when they bully others. They think making others feel bad is fun.
I really don’t understand that way of thinking, but I have thought of one possible explanation for it.
Maybe when they make someone else feel bad about themself for something the bully then feels good because then someone else is feeling worse than the bully.
This makes the bully feel that his life is better than the other persons so he thinks he is feeling true joy.
That actually makes me feel sorry for the bully.
Does that mean that he has never experienced the true joy of being kind to someone?
Has he never felt kindness given to him?
Has he never felt the joy of laughing with someone and not at them? That would be so very sad.
I wonder if we could make a bully stop bullying by making him do acts of kindness?
Maybe if a bully experienced true joy by being kind to someone, the joy of knowing that something that he did made someone happy instead of sad or hurt, then he would know the joy he thought he felt when he bullied someone was not real joy.
Maybe once he felt the real thing he would not be satisfied with anything else.
Maybe I am just daydreaming here but wouldn’t it be nice if we could end bullying by showing the bully the joy of kindness?
My wish is for everyone to have true joyous laughter in their lives.
by Lois Perepelitz
