A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, was made into an award-winning movie many years ago. It is still performed annually as a stage play in New Orleans with many vying for the roles, especially the role of Blanche, an aging, down and out prostitute, still hanging onto her dreams of class and propriety. One of the movie’s most famous lines is the one by Blanche in this video. “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
As children we were told, “Don’t talk to strangers,” We are careful, and rightly so, to tell our children the same, because a stranger might do them harm.
When we’re adults though, it’s a little different. A kind word to someone, even someone we don’t know–even someone like Blanche, can do a lot of good. Sometimes we see a stranger, and our hearts tell us they need encouragement. The compassion within us wants to help, if only with a word, and if only momentarily.
We are a compassionate people. Some work with strangers every day, perhaps as a social worker, an EMT, Emergency room doctors and nurses, Police officers, Priests, Preachers, and Nuns. But it doesn’t have to be our job. Kindness to strangers is actually what God expects of all of us.
What might happen if each of us gave another person more than just smile or a word of encouragement? What if each of us used our God-given talent or trade to really help a person who needs it? Many do. And many bolster their own spirit in the process.
The following video contains portions of another movie called, The Letter Writer. It’s a Christian film, very enjoyable, and makes the point of kindness, even if it does end a bit unrealistically. The movie is about a winning old man who fills his days with writing letters and notes to strangers. He bolsters a distraught teenager’s sagging spirits and helps her learn to help others.
Listen to the words of his letters. Words like these could very well change a life.
Translating a World on the Edge 