I recently saw the official video of Tim McGraw’s song, Humble and Kind, and it blew me away. I loved it and immediately knew I wanted to write about it.

It’s a simple lyric; most of the words are single-syllable. But the message is profound – wherever your life takes you, stay humble, be kind.

McGraw’s words speak to a particularly American (and old-fashioned American, at that) life-view, but the video shows us people from all cultures, all lands. Buddhist monks. Hindus, Africans, Native Americans. A red-haired girl dances. An old cowboy looks with stern dignity from the screen. An infant is baptized. The heart of the song’s meaning is universal.

The final shots show the face of a child, morphing before our eyes through the stages of her life into a proud old age.

Because sometimes pride is warranted, and it is perfectly okay to feel it, when you’ve accomplished something, when your work bears fruit. And there is no inherent contradiction between pride and humility – remaining humble reminds us of everyone who helped our work, smoothed our path, soothed our heartache. We “built that,” true, but they enabled our accomplishment. Such helpers are there for all of us, if we remember to remember, acknowledge, and to be grateful.

Kindness in our dealings – can’t we all use more of that? Both on our end and on the part of others? Sometimes it isn’t easy – we’re tired, we’re busy, we snap. But, if we are mindful and careful, we can do better to model the qualities we’d like to see more of in the world. So, let us do that.

Starting today, let’s all do our best to stay humble and kind.

Please click here to email me directly – I would love to hear your take on being humble and kind in today’s world.

Until next Wednesday –

Peace,

Eric