Small generosities make a happy place

The world loves a grand gesture, but the small generosities provide our daily nourishment.

And so, a salute to the curbside kindnesses we see popping up in the neighborhoods and along the thoroughfares around Kansas City.

Cheers to the Leawood Fire Department, which provides coolers and cups outside its stations to provide refreshment for thirsty walkers and bikers.

Some, like the one shown here at 12701 Mission Road, even offer a free blood pressure check and a drink for one’s pet. That is old-fashioned neighborliness at its finest.

And big applause for a new phenomenon gracing many neighborhoods — the lending library.

What better way to connect with your neighbors than to mount a cheerful box with a swinging door on a post in front of your home and fill it with books? Passersby can take a volume and perhaps replace it with one of their own. From what we hear, that’s exactly what happens.

It’s easy these days to dwell on the world’s cruelties, or to yield to the isolation of technology. Curbside kindnesses remind us that sharing is alive and well.

These may seem like small gestures, but they add up to something big enough to sustain the notion that we are in this together.

This story was originally published June 13, 2014 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Small generosities make a happy place."