Last month I talked at Sparks London Story Cafe at the Canal Cafe Theatre in Little Venice on the Kindness of Strangers. I told of how a laundry maid in our hotel in Hanoi happened to notice that my trousers were too big for me, and to my surpise, I found that when she returned the trousers from the wash, she had sewn on a button in just the right spot. I was stunned at the attention to detail and care: this tiny button has stayed with me down the years. Today I got a parcel from Hanoi, from another friend, Hang, who had helped me look after my two children, a five year old and a tiny baby, when we were there. Hang works now for the government department that deals with child labour and other aspects of child protection, such as strategies to prevent the escalating problem of child sexual exploitation. The parcel contained presents for us all, including embroidery that I know would have taken days to do by hand. We have in our kitchen a beautiful embroidered picture of elephants which we bought at a school where Vietnamese children with disabilities, some of these occuring still as a result of Agent Orange, were taught to sew to be able to support themselves. Such are the ways in which our lives are stitched together. Next week is Kindness Day UK, and I am making a small contribution to a conference at Somerset House in London, Are We Kind Enough? Blessed by gifts of kindness I remember still the laundry maid’s gift of a perfectly sewn button. There is no such thing as a small act of kindness, I conclude: for kindness turns a simple button into a jewel, that shines down the years and only sparkles, but does not fade.
http://www.mixcloud.com/sparklondon/the-button-paula-boddington/