Good evening. Tonight, I am going to tell you a story about a boy named Kyle Smith who graduated from a public school in Chicago several years ago, as told from the point of view of his friend Ted.

Ted begins, “One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class, named Kyle, walking home from school carrying a load of books. I thought, ‘Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? What a nerd.’ As I was walking, I saw a group of kids knock all of his books out of his arms and trip him. His glasses went flying, and since I saw where they went, I retrieved them and went over to him. I handed him his glasses and said, ‘Those guys are jerks. Ignore them.’ I helped him pick up his books and carry them, and we talked all the way home. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I invited him to play football on Saturday with my friends and me. We hung out and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him. My friends thought the same. Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends. Kyle was at the top of our class and of course I teased him all the time about being a nerd.

Graduation day arrived. I could see that he was nervous about his speech. So I smacked him on the back and said, ‘Hey don’t worry, you’ll be great!’ He looked at me with one of those looks, the really grateful one and smiled. ‘Thanks,’ he said.

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat and began, ‘Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years. Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach… but mostly your friends. I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them.’

Kyle said, ‘I am going to tell you a story.’

I stared at Kyle in disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met.

Kyle had made a plan of never coming back to school. He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn’t have to do it later. That was why he was carrying all of his stuff home that first time we met. He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile.

‘Thankfully, I was saved,’ Kyle said. ‘My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable.’

I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment. I saw Kyle’s Mom and Dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile.

Not until that moment did I realize its depth.”

Sometimes we forget how powerful our words and our actions are. How many of us have been in a situation where we felt as alienated as Kyle did? How many of us have treated someone as unkindly as Kyle was treated? And how many of us have offered the kind of kindness that Ted showed?

We are presented with opportunities every single day to treat others with kindness, yet so frequently we do not take them. We are also presented with the opportunity to pull others down, to criticize. And too often, we take it.

Edward R. Sills captures this in the poem, “The Fool’s Prayer.”

These clumsy feet, still in the mire,

Go crushing blossoms without end;

These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust

Among the heart-strings of a friend.

The ill-timed truth we might have kept -

Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung?

The word we had not sense to say -

Who knows how grandly it had rung?

We habitually think that because of who we are that we can criticize, that we can hurt others. And we frequently think that we have no need to show a simple act of kindness when the opportunity presents itself. At times we think that we are above such an act. But this is never the case.

Think about the nicest thing someone ever said to you. How did that make you feel? Now think about the cruelest thing someone ever said to you. How did that make you feel? My point here is obvious. Nice things make us feel good. And cruel things make us feel terrible.

When we have the impulse to be cruel, we should stay silent. When we have the opportunity to be kind, we should take advantage of that instance. Sometimes the opportunity to be kind occurs at the same moment as the opportunity to be cruel, and what we do with that moment does matter.

As we graduate tonight, it is important that we part with kindness, but more significantly, it is important that we take this kindness into the rest of our lives, because with one seemingly insignificant gesture, we can change a person’s life. For better, or for worse.