The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.

The parts of a life that matter most tend to be the parts nobody records. A lift given, a message sent at the right hour, a question asked of someone who expected to be ignored. None of it appears in any account of what you achieved, and much of it you will have forgotten entirely while the other person has not.

That is a reason to lower the threshold for acting. You need no plan and no occasion, only two minutes and a willingness to look slightly foolish if it turns out not to be wanted. Small kindnesses land harder than they look from the giving end, particularly the unnecessary ones.