Re: Re: Kinder

A child said What is kindness? cradling a small cat in a box¹;

How can I answer the child when the perspectives are endless?   

It could be the laughter

of one’s beloved,

Or the warm smile

of a total stranger.

No matter,

What worth does kindness contain?

The sacrifice to be kind to precious someone

            is meager.

The sacrifice to be kind to an outsider

            is unthinkable.

Yet there is such a thing called empathy.

Acts of violence and Acts of hatred,

Acts of peace and Acts of love

are interchangeable and of human nature.

The individual is a double-edged knife.

There is the act of being stabbed and the act of stabbing another.

However, no matter the act,

            It is being repeated and

has passed.

The sacrifice to be kinder to an outsider is not of worth because of empathy,

            but because

                        By being kinder to others, I am being kinder to myself.

The title of the poem “Re: Re:Kinder” includes the title of a translated Japanese RPG black comedy horror game that can only be uniquely described as ‘weird’, “Re:Kinder” created by Parun.

1. Refers to Schrödinger’s cat, a thought experiment, sometimes described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935.  The scenario presents a cat that may be both alive and dead, depending on an earlier random event.  Although the original "experiment" was imaginary, similar principles have been researched and used in practical applications.