This is a series I will be writing over the next few weeks and months about kindness in different realms of our lives. In a world that is telling us to only look out for ourselves or to believe that this world is a zero-sum game with winners and losers, kindness can be the revolution.
Kindness 101- The Rule We All Know
When I was a kid, my mom used to say, “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” It was one of those lines that got repeated so often that it practically lost meaning—like “eat your vegetables” or “say thank you.” But still, somehow it stuck. The Golden Rule: You’ve probably heard it too, maybe from a parent, a teacher, or some dusty book in school. It’s simple enough that a five-year-old can get it. Yet, somehow, it’s one of the hardest things to actually live.
The Messages We Carry
You see, that wasn’t the only thing I heard from my parents. Growing up in the South in the 80s and 90s, I heard a lot of other sayings too, not always kind. Sentences like, “Why are those black people moving in next door? The neighborhood is really going down,” or “Don’t hang out with those people. You’ll be judged by who your friends are.” I grew up around bigots, and I was taught to fear people who were different from me and my family. I was taught that gay people were perverts and only interested in one thing. That thinking became internalized when I realized that I was queer, and I was the person to be feared because I was different from my family.
As we grow up, the world starts to complicate the message. We learn to draw lines: between us and them, familiar and foreign, safe and threatening. We say we believe in fairness and kindness, but those values often stop at the borders of our comfort zones. We treat our friends with kindness, sure. We’re polite to coworkers and kind to neighbors. But what about the people who challenge us? People who look different, think differently, believe differently?
Somewhere along the way, we learn that life’s a game of not-enoughs. Not enough time. Not enough energy. Not enough kindness to spare when we’re barely holding it together ourselves. That’s where the Golden Rule starts to feel less like a nice slogan and more like a dare.
It’s Always Been Radical
If you look across history and cultures, you’ll find versions of this rule everywhere—from ancient Chinese philosophy to the teachings of Jesus, from Hindu texts to Islamic ethics. That’s what’s wild about it: no matter where you go or what time period you land in, people keep coming back to this same idea. It’s like something inside us knows it’s true.
When the Christian version of this rule was first shared among the Hebrews, it was a radical idea. They lived in a rigidly hierarchical society. Telling people that everyone deserved to be treated equally? That turned heads. It still does.
Here’s the thing: the Golden Rule isn’t just about being nice. It’s not about saying “please” and “thank you” or holding the door for someone. It’s about seeing people. Really seeing them. Their fears, their hopes, their humanity. It’s about pausing before we act or speak, and asking ourselves: How would I want to be treated in their shoes?
And that’s not always easy. Especially in a world that constantly ranks people by wealth, power, status, race, sexuality, gender—you name it. In a society like ours, where competition often trumps compassion, that kind of thinking isn’t just rare—it’s revolutionary.
What the Golden Rule really asks of us is to break down the walls we build around our empathy. To stop reserving kindness for those who “deserve” it, or who look like us, or think like us. It asks us to be bigger than our tribes, bigger than our biases.
Scarcity and Survival
And maybe that’s why we struggle with it so much. It’s not just a rule—it’s a challenge to our entire way of being. We’ve learned to ration. Protect. We think in terms of mine and yours and I better get mine before it’s gone. But if we actually tried the Golden Rule—really tried it—maybe our world wouldn’t feel so divided. Maybe we’d start to see each other not as strangers or threats, but simply as people, trying to get through the day.
Think about the world we live in. Everything feels like it’s running on fumes—time, money, attention, patience. We treat these things like precious commodities because that’s how we’ve been taught to see them. There’s never enough. We’re always behind. Someone else’s gain feels like our loss. Welcome to the zero-sum game.This scarcity mindset is everywhere. It shows up when we hoard opportunities or scroll past a story we know deserves compassion because we’re “too busy.” It’s behind that little voice that says, If I give too much, I’ll be left with nothing. What’s in it for me? It’s subtle, but it shapes everything: how we spend our time, how we share our energy, and how we treat other people.
Abundance Equals Thriving
Only paying attention to survival keeps us trapped in scarcity, believing we have to scratch a living out of minimal resources. That’s the lie that capitalism feeds us because our constant hustle feeds the system of capitalism and keeps it going. But don’t you want to do more than survive? I do. Abundance will lead to a thriving existence, a life of joy and peace.
The Golden Rule—the real one, the deep, soul-level version—doesn’t work under scarcity. It only makes sense if we believe there’s enough to go around. Enough time to pause and help. Enough dignity to extend, even to those we disagree with. Enough grace for strangers, even when we’re tired.
That’s what makes kindness revolutionary.
When you choose to treat someone the way you want to be treated, you’re pushing back against the whole scarcity system. You’re saying, “I believe there’s enough humanity here for both of us.” You’re rejecting the idea that life is a competition, and instead choosing connection.
That’s the power of something so simple. Kindness might sound soft. Polite. Maybe even weak in a world that often rewards the loudest voice and the sharpest elbows. But here’s a different take: what if kindness is actually a radical act? What if it’s one of the most world-changing things we can do?
Tiny Sparks
Kindness doesn’t mean giving until you’re empty. It means giving while believing in abundance. There’s more than enough compassion, patience, and understanding to go around—if we just choose to tap into it.
And here’s the kicker: the more you give kindness, the more you realize how untrue the scarcity lie really is. The more kindness you offer, the more of it you seem to have. It’s like the act of giving stretches your capacity to give more. That’s not how the math is supposed to work. But kindness isn’t math. It’s something else entirely.
So maybe the revolution isn’t loud or dramatic. Maybe it’s someone choosing to listen instead of argue. Maybe it’s a stranger sharing their umbrella. Maybe it’s choosing not to clap back in that comment thread. Small things. But that’s how revolutions always start, isn’t it?
Tiny sparks, refusing to go out.
The Quiet Revolution
The revolution doesn’t come with flags or speeches or marching crowds. It looks like a quiet moment in the grocery store when you let someone go ahead of you, even though you’re in a rush. It’s texting someone just to check in. It’s choosing to believe the best in someone who didn’t quite earn it.
These aren’t grand gestures, but they matter because they push back against the idea that we’re all just out here surviving, alone and disconnected. Every small act of kindness says: I see you. You matter. And there’s enough good in the world for both of us.
The Golden Rule isn’t just a moral guideline. It’s a way to live, believing in abundance, in hope, in the power of simple, stubborn love. And if more of us chose to live that way—if we let that rule stretch beyond our families, our comfort zones, our tribes—maybe the world would feel a little less divided. A little more human.
So here’s the challenge: be someone’s spark. Be the quiet revolution, even when it’s hard. Especially when it’s hard. Because in a world built to make us compete, the most radical thing we can do is care.
Rachel Anne Cox 
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