That frown still furrows Linneus' brow a little while he works, loosening the final root and smoothing the soil over after it's pulled up. It's important to Linneus to try to do right, to be kind, to try to help, compelled not just by his nature, but his own experience. He has given must, been taken from plenty. And struggled even then being kind to himself.
And sometimes what people call kindness is just being nice - so many people he has known to be nice only to smooth over cruelties.
"To give - to be kind - sounds an easy thing. But kindness offered only when the inclination allows, when the situation makes it easy... that is not necessarily the measure of a man, I think. Sometimes kindness is perhaps making a hard decision, in the knowledge that it will help..."
It is presumptuous, however, to say such things. He forgets, sometimes, that in the eyes of most he is young yet - what a thing it is, to feel old. To be in his mid-twenties and already tired.
no subject
And sometimes what people call kindness is just being nice - so many people he has known to be nice only to smooth over cruelties.
"To give - to be kind - sounds an easy thing. But kindness offered only when the inclination allows, when the situation makes it easy... that is not necessarily the measure of a man, I think. Sometimes kindness is perhaps making a hard decision, in the knowledge that it will help..."
It is presumptuous, however, to say such things. He forgets, sometimes, that in the eyes of most he is young yet - what a thing it is, to feel old. To be in his mid-twenties and already tired.