Be Kind
Be Kind - meaning Summary
Kindness Toward Wasted Lives
The poem questions the automatic demand for compassion toward others, especially the aged. Bukowski argues that aging can reflect a lifetime of poor choices and refusal to see clearly. He challenges the reader to consider responsibility for wasted lives and whether protecting others from uncomfortable truths is justified. The speaker rejects unearned pity and exposes tension between kindness and accountability.
Read Complete AnalysesWe are always asked to understand the other person's viewpoint no matter how out-dated foolish or obnoxious. One is asked to view their total error their life-waste with kindliness, especially if they are aged. But age is the total of our doing. They have aged badly because they have lived out of focus, they have refused to see. Not their fault? Whose fault? Mine? I am asked to hide my viewpoint from them for fear of their fear. Age is no crime but the shame of a deliberately wasted life among so many deliberately wasted lives is.
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