With Kindness

With Kindness contains letters that were written and sent from July, 2019 to February, 2020. Topics in the letters came from information that appeared in news media reports.

While most of the letters express concern over policy decisions and behaviors of the recipients, the letters tried to communicate with kindness, while still being direct. An attempt was often made to understand what caused the recipient to make decisions that seemed to be misguided. Usually, it was found that the recipient made their decisions through no fault of their own, that forces beyond their control directed it. Then, an attempt was made to come up with a strategy to address the decisions or behaviors that had occurred.

Often the suggested strategy was expected to be difficult, and while achieving some measure of improvement in the situation, it was not expected to fully resolve the situation. This limitation was pointed out to the recipient.

The letter writer makes no claim to be an expert on kindness, only that over time, in writing these letters, a degree of mindfulness about kindness was developed. A friendly and down-to-earth tone was adopted in the letters.