What has happened to kindness these days? It is in short supply. However, earlier this week, a nugget of kindness made national news.

This past Sunday, Ellen DeGeneres attended the Dallas Cowboys / Green Bay Packers football game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. At one point, with her phone camera, she panned the people sitting next to her. Sitting on one side of her was former President George W. Bush. She took a selfie with the two of them smiling.

After posting the selfie, some of her followers were critical about the company she was keeping. She is actually taking flak because she sat next to someone whose beliefs are different than hers. Really? You’re kidding me, right? It’s time for everyone to take a deep breath and quit taking ourselves so incredibly seriously.

She responded to the criticism in the opening monologue of her television show when she reminded us to be kind. “Just because I don’t agree with someone on everything doesn’t mean that I’m not going to be friends with them,” she explained. “When I say, ‘Be kind to one another,’ I don’t only mean the people that think the same way that you do. I mean be kind to everyone.”

If our country is ever going to get out of the deep quagmire we have settled into, kindness and respect are going to have to take their rightful places again.

The Apostle Paul puts it this way in Ephesians 4:32 (from the KJV, as I learned the verse as a child): “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

A couple of weeks ago, I was headed to the adjacent town to get my car washed. Yes, I am too lazy to get out there with a water hose myself. Along the way, I saw some cars approaching with lights on. I recognized it was a funeral procession. The driver in front of me and I simultaneously pulled over to the side of the road.

As I sat there I was thinking that a funeral procession is one of the few places left where people show kindness and respect to strangers. I tried to think of other situations where people almost universally show kindness and respect to others. And you know what? It was difficult to think of any.

Why is that? Why are kindness and respect in such short supply? Why can we not be friendly with those people who do not believe like we do?

Our current political climate has devolved into a “winner take all” mentality. There seems to be very little middle ground anymore. And so, to bolster “our side,” we not only have to disagree with others, but we denigrate them in the process. If we show kindness or respect, “our side” takes it as a point of weakness, of “giving in” to the other side.

I sure hope this mentality can change. I hope we can bring civility back into our conversations…kindness back into our lifestyles…respect back into our interactions with others.

And if I’m going to be truthful about this, it has to begin with me…my actions…my words. Maybe if all of us show more kindness, we can start seeing a difference. Thanks to Ellen DeGeneres and President Bush for being good examples.