Kindly mistaken

How do you see the role of vulnerability in your service-learning experience?
By Justin Salter
In my service-learning experience I work with a very vulnerable group of people. As I talked about on my research assignment, the reason this age group is abused is because they are so vulnerable. It is because they are vulnerable however, that I feel like it is my duty to help them. “…which show kindness registering much higher on the happiness scale than self-focused behavior. “ (pg 3) This is true for me. I feel much happier when I help people than when I do anything else. This is why I want to be a nurse, so I can enjoy myself, while I make a good living. “In one sense kindness is always hazardous because it is based on the susceptibility to others, a capacity to identify with their pleasures and sufferings.” (pg 5) This is very true and by doing this people make themselves vulnerable as well. They are more easily taken advantage of and sometimes it even enables the other group to continue to portray the need for possibly unneeded help.
“We have become phobic of kindness in our own societies, avoiding obvious acts of kindness and producing, as we do with phobias, endless rationalizations to justify our avoidance.” (pg 8) This quote stood out to me because a common excuse I hear for why people don’t help others is because they don’t have time. Well I don’t have time yet I still do. People come up with justifications so they don’t feel bad about not helping others. To most, the self comes first, and as long as a person thinks this as opposed to society as a whole coming first, then this phobia of kindness will continue. Most believe it is a dog eat dog world out there so they don’t care about the eaten dogs. Unfortunately, it seems kindness is reserved for those who need it least, like the wealthy and the famous. This is because people want to identify with them, because they wish they were in the same situation. Man people can be so kindly mistaken!!