The Kindness Reminder

Earlier this month, Elizabeth Alexander, an awesome poet sometimes called “the inaugural poet for a new generation of twenty-first century voices,” read her following poem, “Praise Song for the Day,” for Obama and for everyone:

Praise Song for the Day

by Elizabeth Alexander



Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other,
catching each other’s
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn
and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.
Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform,
patching a tire,
 repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere, 
with a pair of
wooden spoons on an oil drum, 
with cello, boom box,
harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus. 
A farmer considers the
changing sky .
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.

We encounter each other in words, words 
spiny or smooth,
whispered or declaimed,
 words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark 
the will of some one
and then others, who said
I need to see what’s on the other side.

I know there’s something better down the road.
We need to find
a place where we are safe. 
We walk into that which we cannot yet
see.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day. 
Sing the names of
the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised
the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built 
brick by brick the
glittering edifices 
they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for
every hand-lettered sign, 
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
 others by first do no
harm or take no more
 than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national, 
love that casts a widening
pool of light,
 love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air, 
any thing can be made,
any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.


…While browsing through the internet the other day, I came across something else. It’s called the “String-Ring,*” The Kindness Reminder (*tm). The String-Ring is a very special kind of ring which reminds yourself and those who notice it to be kind to each other. Each colored string represents a kind of kindness, from love to empathy, optimism and introspection and enthusiasm to giving. I think this ring might just have something to do with what Elizabeth Alexander was talking about in her awesome Inaugural Poem. It's something you can wear to remind yourself (and pass on to others who see it) ideas like “love thy neighbor as thyself” – and to remember to remain empathetic, to help each other out through hard times, to be brave and bright and bold as girls of a new and continuing generation…as we “walk…forward in that light” -- to find and express our own voices as girls and as people of this world, with our very own “songs”: aloud.

Here’s a link to The String Ring! -- created by Tina&Jeff

www.string-ring.com/

Pass It On.