Although we leave for France today, I had intended to write something yesterday, come what may. The habit has become strong since I started these regular posts again.
Missing a week feels not only like a dereliction of duty, but the interruption of a natural rhythm. However, I was eventually defeated by a combination of packing and a long and inopportune but interesting phone call.
When I began this blog, now seventeen years ago, I was working mostly as a writer in the world of business. I named it A Few Kind Words after hearing someone make the point that our modern idea of kindness arises from the more ancient concept of kinship.
We need to be kind to one another because we are all of the same, human, kind. And the language of business, it seemed, was not kind. It was impersonal and alienating. It lacked empathy.
Today, empathy seems in short supply wherever you look, from the White House to the streets of Belfast. So much so that when I heard this from an American author on a podcast the other day, it struck a loud chord:
‘We’re living in a world where just to be a decent person is like an act of protest.’
As we drive from Scotland to south-west France over the next few days, I’ll have plenty of time to reflect on what it means to be a decent person, and how that could, as an act of protest, make a difference.
I wonder what it means to you?
A Few Kind Words 
Sadly, the world seems to be sliding into extremism and, as was argued by Eric Hoffer, extreme ideologies and causes need somebody to hate; an enemy against whom they are united. The extremist perceives some lack in themselves or their lives and need to have an enemy to blame. Such enemies are themselves often powerless and vulnerable, hence refugees. Hate isn’t rational, just emotional, and social media is extremely good at magnifying emotion.
For me, as a Christian, being a decent person means being tolerant of others (though remaining firm in my own beliefs), trying to love and pray for the unlovable (like Trump), being quick to forgive and slow to anger, be generous to those in need, and face troubles with equanimity. I readily admit, however, I don’t always achieve the ideal.
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Rest assured, Jamie. The majority of people in the north of this island are appalled by what we have witnessed this week. I long for the day when media outlets feature our decisive and unconditional support of ethnic communities and the fulsome condemnation of this dreadful cancer. There will be an anti-racism protest in the centre of Belfast this Saturday. Let’s see how much coverage it gets. Resistance and hope have little to offer the picture editors of broadcast news. A burning bus is a seductive image; courage in a crowd rarely makes the cut. Yet it is there, often in far greater numbers than the cameras reveal.
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As is also the case in Glasgow, Gillian, where our thugs were at it ‘in sympathy’ with your thugs, yet the vast majority of people are appalled and will turn out in large numbers in support of immigrants – the image with the post is from Kenmure Street.
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