Human Angel Saves Lives With a Simple Act of Kindness

I listened to a TED talk. The speaker, Aaron Stark, was a mental health advocate who, as an abused child, planned to commit suicide.

His parents were drug dealers who had little or no interest in him. Because the family was always on the run from the law, he attended over thirty schools growing up, going to school dirty, smelling bad, and lonely. He started cutting himself around age 14, thinking he must be worthless and therefore should pay. His parents kicked him out at age 16, and he lived in his friend’s shed.

He finally called social services for help after he had severely cut himself, but they not only brought him in but his mother also. His mother was so skilled at dealing with agencies that she convinced them Aaron was only trying to get attention. On the way home she told him, “Next time, do a better job and I will buy you the razor blades.” Something inside of Aaron died. He no longer wanted to live.

Aaron decided to kill himself, except he wanted his parents to pay for raising such a monster. The plan was to take out as many people as he could right before he pulled the trigger on himself. By then, he had stopped going home and was, for the most part, homeless.

He was able to get a gun from a local gang in exchange for some drugs. He was either going to do the deed at a food court or at his high school where there was minimal security, and was in the process of deciding exactly when he should put the plan into action.

At school that day, His friend said, “Hey, why don’t you come over tonight for a meal? We’ll watch a movie. You can get cleaned up.” This young man knew that Aaron was lonely, depressed and desperate, but he didn’t know what Aaron was planning.

“That simple act of kindness saved my life and the lives of those I would have taken out with me,” Aaron said. One person thought he had worth. One person was kind. One person cared. It was all Aaron needed. No social services, no therapists or psychiatrists, no twelve step programs - just one simple act of kindness.

“Extend love to those we think deserve it the least,” Aaron said, “Because those who deserve it the least need it the most. And, if someone treats you like a person when you don’t even feel human, it will change your life.”

Because of that one act of kindness, Aaron found himself. Today he is married with four children. He presents to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in hopes of improving methods and techniques when dealing with those on the edge of mass shootings and suicides.

His wife, his daughter, and the friend who saved his life were in the audience at his TED talk.

Love never fails. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:7-8

In a world where you can be anything, be kind.