I came across this quote while skimming through an issue of I-D. (A british high fashion magazine) The words themselves are simplistic, but the meaning of the quote was harder to comprehend.
This is what I concluded:
- Nice focuses on how the other person is thinking and feeling;their perception of the situation.
- Kind is personal action;what you decide to do and why.
- When you want to be nice, it’s because you want to please the other person; you want everyone to be happy.
- When you want to be kind it’s because you want to do what is right regardless of how other people feel about it.
My entire life, I have always been "nice". Ask anyone, people who barely know me, and that is the first word they would identitfy me with. I hate that word. While I'm sure people mean it as a compliment, I cringe at its reference toward me. People ask "How can you be so nice," as if its a great attribute. Before reading this quote, I never realized why I felt so ashamed of it. But it now makes sense.
I have been so obssessed with how the other person feels and acting for the "good" of others.
Even if someone did something bad, I would try to make them feel better by telling them that whatever they did was ok, and acceptable. My concern was on the individual, regardless of my values and morals. I hated being called "nice" because subconciously I knew I wasn't being nice...or atleast not to the full extent.
Being a good person requires an equal amount of niceness and kindness, so to speak. Combining the both, if nothing else, results in a genuinely good person.
xoxo,
Curiouschloe
ps- I found this great link, that better exemplifies the definition of the quote.
