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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gg cox who wrote (19066)	8/31/2010 5:05:19 PM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 42652

As a teenager I saw a movie that made a huge impression on me. It was The Nun's Story. Audrey Hepburn played Sister Luke, a Belgian nun who trained to be a nurse in the Congo. She struggled against the constraints of being a nun, particularly obedience and pride. There was another nun at the convent who, shall we say, lacked Sister Luke's talent. What I recall particularly from the movie was that the Mother Superior wanted Sister Luke to stifle and hide her talents out of kindness to the less endowed nun lest she feel inferior. She went so far as to deny Sister Luke further training and assignment to important research in the Congo to impose humility. My teenage judgment was that that was the most wasteful and stupid thing I had ever seen. (Sister Luke ended up defying the Mother Superior, doing work in the Congo, and finally leaving the order.) I think that Bezos's point is a good one. It was not until middle age that I learned to actively choose generosity over applause. It was difficult but amazingly satisfying. But I think that, like most things, favoring kindness is not an absolute. In recent years, I have carved out two exceptions, two nettlesome characteristics/behaviors where sacrificing kindness is sometimes warranted. Shall I be clever and tell you what they are or kind and leave them unnamed? Hmmmm...