MM213 - The Staying Power of Kindness

We remember those who have wronged us, but we should remember those who have treated us with kindness. Being kind is not just niceness. Sometimes kindness is honesty.

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♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Welcome to Morning Mindset. A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel. Each episode will focus on positive and productive ways to strengthen your mindset and help you improve your relationships, career goals, and overall well-being. Please welcome your host; Paul G. Markel.

*Professor Paul*
Hello and welcome back to... I almost said the other the name of my other show, but welcome back to Morning Mindset. Yes, I need to remind myself. I need to get myself in a Morning Mindset type of mood before I hit record on the digital recording software that we use here in our studio. Alright, today I'm going to share something personal with you. You're welcome. A lot of people I would say most people probably have a song or a group of songs a playlist that defines their time in high school or their time as a young person.
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I have actually several songs. There are several songs that if they come on the radio or if I find them on my phone or a search for them deliberately that I can be transported right there. Right back to where I was at that time when I was listening to it, and one of those songs is Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven and if you're an old codger like me, you're like, "Duh, that's everybody song." But if you're a young crumb crunching Millennial, you're like what that old classic rock song from that old band Led Zeppelin. Yeah, now the reason that I mean other than the obvious that the fact that it is a monster ballad, why Stairway to Heaven means something to me.
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That's because when I went to high school in Detroit, I started high school at the time. It was the early 1980s and if you know anything about music history Stairway to Heaven was released in the late 70s, it became a monster hit and the DJ's that DJ'd is high school dances. That song was chosen to be the final dance of the Night song and I don't know how long they had been doing it before I went to high school there and I don't know how long they continue to do it after I was gone. But while I was there Stairway to Heaven and it’s a long song was the that was the signal that this is the last dance of the night. Now in modern times, people would be like, oh that's a stupid song and, you know, dance to that and the fact of the matter is it wasn't really it was a slow song but it wasn't a slow song.
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It was a slow song that got faster didn't matter. It didn't matter. Now. The reason that that song means so much to me. Is I recall the Freshman mixer if you guys don't know what a mixer is. This is something that they used to do in the old days before the Advent of Facebook and Snapchat and Instagram and all of these Modern Marvels they wanted. Freshman to get to know each other and to get comfortable with their new school because why because well the fact is the majority of the people that were at the high school didn't go to elementary school or junior high together.
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Now I know many areas of the country, you know, you go to elementary school with the same group of kids and then you go to Junior High with the same group of kids and you go to high school with the same group of kids and you know each other from kindergarten through graduation, but when I was going we had a lot of small parochial elementary schools all over the Greater Detroit area, and then we had just a couple handful of high schools, and so all these small parochial Elementary and that basically they went K-8 schools.
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You would all get together in this one school and you only knew maybe 20 or 30 people when you actually started your freshman year. So they would have this thing called a freshman mixer and it was a dance and it was only for freshmen because they didn't want the freshmen to be overwhelmed or intimidated by the upperclassmen. Now the people who put it together in addition to teachers obviously was the student council the freshman, sophomore, junior, senior student council members. They put it together, they organized it in all that, and I remember during the Freshman mixer, asking two senior girls. I know I was 14, I asked two senior girls not the same time separately. To dance. and they both did and it was like I was dancing with angels.
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I was so far out of my league, but you know what? They said. Yes, they danced with me out there on the gymnasium floor in our socks because you weren't allowed to wear Street shoes on the gym floor, and their names were Janice McPhee and Patty Duffer. He says wow, Paul. How long ago is that Ben? It's been a while take today's date and go back to the fall of 1981, and that's how long it's been. Why do I remember them and why do we remember that dancing water? Remember that because ladies and gentlemen, they were kind. To me every freshman every 13, 14, 15-year-old doesn't matter whether you're a boy or girl. You're self-conscious. You're awkward and I was no different but even though I was an awkward skinny 14-year-old freshman.
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These senior girls. Do you guys remember that? Can you can you recall when you were 13 or 14 or even 15 years old looking at the seniors a high school seniors and they just seem so old and wise and mature and so far out of your league, even though today it's funny because if you look at someone that's three or four years older and you're like, yeah, whatever no big deal but back then, you know when you're that young. But those two girls and they're obviously grown women now, but they were kind to me, and I remember that kindness all these years later now kindness doesn't always have to be about just niceness or being you know, smiling and you know false niceness sometimes kindness can just be Honesty.
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When I was in infantry school, and I was in the Infantry School in the Marine Corps the sergeant who was in charge of my assault section and I was in assault man so we had an assault section the sergeant who was in charge was a salty infantry marine and he took the time and I talked about him before his name was Fred Sizemore sergeant. He took the time not only to teach us what he was supposed to teach us what it said in the, you know, but he also had the 3-ring binder that said teach these kids this these are the subjects you need to cover. These are the tests. You need to give this is what you have to do according to the rules. He did more than that, and he was honest with us. He told us he said there's the way they say things are, and there's the way things really are in the Infantry in the Marine Corps.
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He told us that the Marine Corps you as you might think it's big. It's a large organization. He said but the Marine Corps is a small organization in the global scheme of things and the Infantry is even smaller. He said you might think that you can screw someone over here and you'll never see them again. I said but you will be said or you could treat someone right and do the right thing because then you'll end up in a unit with them a year or two or so from now and you'll already have a relationship established with them the moment you arrived, and Fred Sizemore was absolutely right everywhere. I went in the Marine Corps every base.
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I checked into or checked on to every unit I was a part of, I ended up at some point in time running into or being stationed with people, Marines, infantrymen that I had known previously. Now Sergeant Sizemore did not, he would not fit the I guess the general textbook description of kind or kindness, but he was kind to us because he was honest with us and he told us exactly what we could expect out of our new lives out of our lives as Marine Corps infantrymen, and I remember that. I remember that to this day. I remember his name and I remember how he treated us because of the staying power of kindness often. We remember and we dwell on those who have wronged us. It's human nature.
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Everyone does it I do it you do we all do it. But what we should be doing is we should be dwelling on we should be remembering we should be thinking fondly of. Those who have treated us with kindness. Now those people that I just mentioned here, they probably didn't think anything of it. They probably, those wonderful young women who were kind enough to dance with an awkward freshman. They probably don't sit at home thinking about that dance or about that freshman they danced with.
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Sergeant Sizemore probably had hundreds, if not thousands of young Privates and PFCs go through his school there were in his in the assault section while he was stationed with the school of the Infantry there on Camp Geiger. He probably doesn't remember me as an individual. But that's okay cuz I remember them remember them all. Things that you do that you don't think anything about May resonate with others. If you are honest, if you are kind if you are considerate to other people you have no idea that could resonate with them and stick with them for years and years. There is a definite staying power to kindness. So give it a try. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I am your host Paul Markel and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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