I believe that people are bad at heart. What with historical events (like Nazi Germany, the Inquisition, the Great Leap Forward), psychological evidence (the Zimbardo and Milgram experiments), and current events (pick up a paper) I'm fairly disgusted at our species as a whole.

However, that's not entirely a negative sentiment. I think a bit of kindness is nobler against the backdrop of our craptastic-ness.

So I had four recent bits of kindness:

1. I met a girl that lives in France a while ago who shot me a sweet email. She's seeing a French guy now. It's ok, the late night conversations were enough for me.
2. I got another very personal email from a co-worker wishing me a happy holiday. It was nice to get because, while we work closely together, we've never actually met (like you and me).
3. I met a girl tonight that I found refreshingly honest about life. Honesty without meanness is so rare.
4. Finally, today, I got an Xmas card from a reader amidst my usual bills. As an aside, she looks completely Caucasian but she's got a Chinese last name. It turns out that four generations ago, her grandfather was Chinese. I find that so cool.