Why, Here in Ventura — and Throughout California — Kindness Really Matters Now

By Visit Ventura

Now that California and Ventura have reopened, folks are flooding out into the world with joyous abandon. That is happy news. We all can use plenty of joy. But there is a flip side to this flood. Businesses that had gone to a skeletal staff (or no staff) are suddenly short staffed. The simple, unequal math is reduced to this — many of our Ventura businesses are struggling to do a LOT more with fewer people. Our Ventura businesses — from hotels, to restaurants, to retail — are working hard to hire staff, but it takes time. Lines are a little longer. Waits are a little longer. Phones ring a little longer.

Our businesses are doing the best they can in the face of a happy deluge of visitors and locals eager to greet life, all of them boosting our economy (for which we are deeply grateful). And our businesses are working equally hard to do better. Until they catch up — and they will — we ask for some simple, but game-changing, things. Like patience. An understanding smile. A kind word. Maybe even an unasked for thank you. Ventura’s wonderful Park Safety Ambassadors would be a fine place to start (They’re easy to spot; wearing bright colored shirts with Ventura’s logo, they’re perpetually cleaning and graciously answering every kind of question).

So, for starters, thank you Ambassador Tim.

That’s right, who better to get the kindness ball rolling than the locals? We Venturans know how to do this. No town knows better. We know how to move a little more slowly; see what’s important and what isn’t. These businesses that are working so hard to adapt to this bright world, most of them are run by our friends and neighbors. These are people we know. How could we not be patient and understanding?

Venturans and visitors, we all walk through this time together. Who wouldn’t want to make it more pleasant? And it requires pretty much nothing. No effort (how hard is a smile?). No real inconvenience (how hard, a few extra beats of patience?) No timetable. “Be kind whenever possible,” the Dalai Lama once said. “It is always possible.”

Why not even be proactively kind? There’s the story of a man who sets his phone alarm so that it goes off a few times a day. At that moment, he does something kind.

Makes you feel good just reading that, doesn’t it?

Why not spread that feeling?

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