Imagine if you had a job where your sole duty was to spread kindness in your community? That’s what KNAU listener Jen Saunders does. She is the president of BLE Flagstaff, a non-profit organization dedicated to random acts of kindness. It was established in 2015 by the family of late Flagstaff neurosurgeon, Nate Avery. And this Monday, BLE will embark on an ambitious day of giving, in hopes that the community will be inspired to pay kindness forward in their own way. Their very first act of kindness Monday will be to answer phones for KNAU’s upcoming pledge drive. Jen Saunders shares more in this week’s Poetry Friday segment.
JS: Having a job – I guess you could call it – of spreading kindness is probably the best job that anyone could ever have. Although I love to get surprised by other people, and people spread kindness my way – it’s more fun to actually give kindness and to share it with someone who’s not expecting it. And it’s even more fun when they don’t know where it came from, it’s just completely random.
So, you might see a lot of BLE stickers around town on people’s cars, or a few people wearing hats, or shirts, or even brightly colored socks. BLE stands for ‘Best Life Ever’. Basically, the only reason that BLE exists is to inspire kindness in others. Just basically teaching people to take that one moment every day and make it a practice. It doesn’t have to be anything complicated. It doesn’t have to be expensive. It’s as simple as sharing a smile. Leave a little note on your neighbor’s door telling them why you think they’re a great neighbor. Or, just be kind to someone in the grocery story. Ask them how they’re doing. It’s really simple things that you can do every day that can make a huge difference in somebody’s life. It doesn’t matter whether people are rich, or struggling, or happy, or sad. None of that matters. Everyone needs kindness.
So, coming up this Monday we will be celebrating BLE Day. On this day, all the board members are going to get together, and some other community members, and we are going to spread kindness throughout our entire town by taking $10,000.00 and just randomly surprising people. It may be something as small as buying someone coffee; it may be something like buying someone’s dental cleaning. So, look for us all around town on Monday. What we’re hoping is that everybody in Flagstaff just take a few minutes, think of something easy to do, and spread some kindness.

The poem I’m going to share with you today is called The Paradoxical Commandments, by Kent M. Keith. I chose this because the theme in the paradox is sort of preserve in doing good for humanity and acting with integrity even if your efforts aren’t appreciated. That’s really important.
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
More information about BLE Day is at BLEflagstaff.org. Poetry Friday is produced by KNAU's Gillian Ferris. If you have an idea for a segment, drop her an email at Gillian.Ferris@nau.edu.
