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Author of The Kindness Diaries visits AMC

  • Published
  • By Candy Knight, Air Mobility Command Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. — The power of kindness was the topic of the day as Air Mobility Command hosted Leon Logothetis, author of The Kindness Diaries, during an morale event here Nov. 16.

“Everyone Matters” was Logothetis’ main message as he spoke about his journey circumnavigating the globe, relying only on the kindness of strangers to help him. He also discussed his adventures with members of the military, expressing his gratitude at being invited to speak with AMC members. 

“I feel honored to be invited into your family,” he said. “You have a sense of community here that many people don’t have in their daily lives, and it’s wonderful to be invited into that family.”

Logothetis said the one aspect he hopes people learn from The Kindness Diaries is that how they treat other people and themselves makes a big difference in the way people live their lives.

“Kindness is not just some big thing you do once a year,” he said. “It’s how you live your life. It’s how you show up, moment to moment. It can make a profound difference in your own existence and in the existence of other people.”

The kindness message resonated with many AMC members in attendance, including Capt. Christen Smith, executive officer for AMC’s Test and Evaluation Directorate. 

“The biggest thing I took from his presentation was that you really have to look at yourself in order to be fulfilled and be able to help the community,” she said. “You have to train yourself to empathize and to practice being kind in order to be effective in the community.”

Smith added it was also nice to break away from the normal mission-oriented All Calls and get inspired to be better Wingmen. 

“Day-to-day, we start focusing so much on the mission and our jobs that sometimes we forget to empathize with our co-workers and our friends,” she said. “The presentation was a nice reminder to Airmen not to forget to take care of themselves, their families and their fellow Airmen.”

For Master Sgt. Kaishla Davie, executive assistant to AMC deputy commander, seeing the contagious nature of kindness is what truly inspired her to try to be more kind to others. 

“My thoughts were ‘okay, I can be kind to people, and even if it’s not reciprocated to me, it may be reciprocated to someone else,’” she said. “I left thinking ‘what am I going to do to be kind and help other people.” 
 
Logothetis ended his presentation by reminding the audience that “everyone matters.” 

“As human beings, we are all the same,” he said. “My message is simple — kindness is helping someone feel less alone. When you help someone feel less alone, you’re are telling them that ‘you matter enough to me that I will go out of my way to be of service for you’, and that’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.”