I was recently reminded of a wonderful quote that, quite frankly, can’t be heard too often. As the late, great Kurt Vonnegut said, “There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”
It’s not easy to remember that idea these days, however, especially online, where partisan attitudes are pretty well entrenched and even measured, cogent debate, let alone kindness, is a rarity. But we got a wonderful reminder of why it’s important recently.
Patton Oswalt might not be an A-lister in Hollywood, but he’s a superstar at kindness, and he showed it off in a recent exchange on Twitter.
The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actor (lanyards!) is a pretty active Twitter user and he doesn’t keep his political beliefs to himself, which tends to attract an interesting crowd. And when a troll took a swipe at him, Patton joked back, and it almost ended with that.
However, Patton must have decided to click on the guy’s Twitter handle to find out a little more about him.
And as he discovered, the guy, Michael Beatty, seemed to have been coming at him from a place of pain. So, instead of ragging on the poor dude, Patton approached it with kindness, promised to donate to Michael’s GoFundMe, and encouraged his supporters to do likewise.
On his GoFundMe, Michael explained that he was trying to raise $5,000 to help cover some of his medical costs.
He said he was a Vietnam vet who had spent a couple of weeks in the hospital with sepsis and diabetic ketoacidosis recently. At that point, he had raised $600. Patton was clearly moved by his struggles and stepped right up, donating $2,000.
After that, Patton’s Twitter followers took over. Obviously they didn’t all chip in thousands of dollars, but they donated what they could.
Patton’s Mystery Science Theater 3000 co-star Felicia Day threw some money in as well. Within half an hour, they had donated enough for the guy to reach his goal, and then some.
And even though Michael’s goal was so quickly reached, people haven’t stopped donating to his GoFundMe.
At the most recent count, he’s up to $30,000, just from regular folks donating what they can to help out a man in need.
Moreover, Patton’s act of kindness might have just changed a guy’s behavior online.
As he said after the donations came pouring in, “You have caused me to take pause and reflect on how harmful words from my mouth could result in such an outpouring.”
And he didn’t limit his thanks to just Patton, but he extended a message to Patton’s followers, too.
Patton did something super cool by getting the ball rolling, but the donations and messages of support, despite political differences, from far and wide, had to be incredibly moving.
So now Michael finds himself overwhelmed with kindness and funds donated from good people for good things.
He’s said that he wants to pass some of the goodness along to a cousin in need, and Patton suggested a few ways that maybe some of the extras could be paid forward to other folks as well.
Who knows, maybe a few more hearts will be changed in the process, too.
