RE: The Practice of Kindness — Because it Matters!
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You've made a meaningful distinction between "niceness" and kindness. Kindness is usually gentle but may be firm, being nice isn't always being kind.
The etymology of "kind" is somewhat revealing, and two concept jumped out at me - one, treating someone as if they were family, and two - the deliberate nature. A choosing.
Niceness, too often can just be a signal - don't harm me I'm not dangerous. Kindness between two dangerous men takes on a different aspect - respect, moderation, cordiality, and aknowledgement of value.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/kind
kind (adj.)
"friendly, deliberately doing good to others," Middle English kinde, from Old English (ge)cynde "natural, native, innate," originally "with the feeling of relatives for each other," from Proto-Germanic *kundi- "natural, native," from *kunjam "family" (see kin), with collective or generalizing prefix *ga- and abstract suffix *-iz. The word rarely appeared in Old English without the prefix, but Old English also had it as a word-forming element -cund "born of, of a particular nature" (see kind (n.)). Sense development probably is from "with natural feelings," to "well-disposed" (c. 1300), "benign, compassionate, loving, full of tenderness" (c. 1300)
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Thanks for sharing the definition... I admit I never took the time to look at it before.
I have long had a dislike of "generic" terms like nice and having fun because they tend to leave far too much latitude for misunderstanding and for people to (incorrectly) fill in their own blanks and jump to false conclusions.
I would not describe myself as a "nice" person, and I'm not even particularly agreeable, but if someone told me I was kind, I would not reject that characterization. Because there is a difference!