Editorial: Kindness is our high school commencement message

Most of us remember the great American philosopher Henry David Thoreau from our required high school reading.

It was there in high school that Thoreau was introduced to us. And it was there in high school where, for many of us, he remained, a book to never again be opened.

There's a sad truth to that. And as we reflect today on the Class of 2015 and the commencement exercises that have taken place these past few weeks, there's a certain irony as well.

Surely, of the advice we offer this year's graduates, keeping Thoreau dear to your hearts is one poignant piece of it. May his words serve as a lifelong source of direction and inspiration.

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind,” Thoreau wrote more than a century and a half ago. “To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”

Each of us has a choice. We can stumble haphazardly along the path to who we become. Or, with deliberation and purpose, we can choose who we are to be.

Above all else, be kind.

This was our message to graduates last year. It remains our message to graduates this year.

Choose to be kind.

“Life is made up not of great sacrifices or duties,” 18th century British scientist Humphry Davy said, “but of little things, in which smiles and kindness and small obligations given habitually are what preserve the heart and secure comfort.”

As we said in this space a year ago, you don't have to look too far to find instances of meanness, pettiness or vindictiveness.

They're not just prevalent in our world. They're prevalent in our daily lives. Probably none of us gets through a day without observing, suffering or committing meanness in some way.

But we can choose to reject that way of life. We can choose to live a happy life. We can choose to be kind, the surest prescription for happiness.

Og Mandino, the late author of strategies for success, advised: “Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.”

For those of the Class of 2015 heading out just now to make your ways in the world, heed the inspiring calls of the commencement speeches from across the suburbs.

Believe in yourselves. Improve the world. Remember your roots. Seize the day. Commit yourselves to all these things.

But above all else, be kind.