Miracle of kindness

The Boston Herald

BEVERLY BECKHAM

It's all thin ice, or a minefield, or a tightrope. Pick your favorite analogy.

Toxins, fire, a fall, a virus, bacteria, a gunshot wound can, in an instant, change what is into what was. And nothing is ever the same.

Before he ran into a burning building, he had a normal life. Now he is disfigured and disabled.

Before she was diagnosed with multiple mylenoma, she worried about getting into college. Now she worries about finding a bone marrow donor.

A single moment can alter a life.

It's people reaching out and helping that gets other people through these tough times. Human kindness is the one true miracle drug.

But you wouldn't think there was a drop of it in this world if all you did was watch television and read newspapers. For the news is one-sided. It's largely about people hurting one another. There's little said about the good that people do.

A college student volunteers an afternoon a week to help an old woman write checks and answer mail and attend to things the woman can no longer do. The volunteer's picture isn't in the paper. Her kindness isn't news.

A young woman, with a small child and a full-time job, checks on an elderly neighbor every day, brings in her mail, puts drops in her eyes, drives to the store if she needs milk or bread. Another kindness done in the shadows.

Big and small kindnesses are everywhere, but they're so much a part of the background that we hardly notice them.

This Friday night there will be an auction in Braintree at the Sons of Italy Lodge. All proceeds from the auction will benefit Cerebral Palsy of the South Shore Area. You won't read about this on the front page because no disreputable director will drive away in a Lincoln Continental, compliments of the auction. Every penny made will be spent on children whose parents, in a blink of an eye, had their lives turned upside down.

Cerebral Palsy of the South Shore Area, is a private, non-profit facility where little kids with big problems go for help. Some have Cerebral Palsy. Some have Down Syndrome. Many are cognitively impaired, blind or paralyzed. Every one needs the care, therapy and training available at this place; no child is denied service because of inability to pay.

Their small building on Adams Street in Quincy is filled with things - kids' things - Mickey Mouse and Big Bird and Bert and Ernie stick-ons on the walls; the brightly colored plastic toys on the floor; the cribs and changing tables; blankets and bottles. It's also filled with people - the teachers and therapists who work so hard to bring about small, everyday miracles.

And they are miracles because in another time, another place these children would be doomed. We need only look to 20/20, which last Friday night showed again the abysmal condition of orphans living in Romania.

Americans are constantly being told that we're greedy and selfish, but we're not. We don't give up on people. We fund and support all kinds of services for those who need help. We do it in big ways, with laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act, and in small ways, with fundraisers like Friday's auction.

No one had to do any of this, but they do it nonetheless. Human kindness - that's what it's all about