Attract Mode

I’m such a freak. Maybe it’s only self-serving. I don’t know how I can believe things as small as a smile can help but not believe my vote matters.

But I do. I feel like every action you perform on the world around you makes ripples. And those ripples can make other things happen (or stop them from happening), which of course makes more ripples. A smile can go to the shores of the Indian Ocean. So can a curse.

It’s why I think it’s important to be polite. Not mouthing formalities-polite, but letting people know when you appreciate their work, and being gracious enough to overlook it when somebody screws up (sometimes people are assholes, but more often, they just screw up), and being generous with people who have very little reason to care anymore.

I feel like the most basic form of charity is a smile. You see a real smile on the street from a stranger and it’s like a little spark of joy jumps from them to you. Maybe it’s because they see you. Maybe it’s because one of the things a smile says is, “You’re not alone.” I always feel a little bit stronger when somebody smiles at me, often– maybe even especially– if no words are exchanged. It’s a very bright moment.

Probably because of the ADD, I think that days are made of moments. People are a collection of their moments, and their reactions to those moments. Things happen, or don’t happen, because of an accumulation of moments. Bad things happen because of dark moments. A smile could stop the dark moments from overflowing, or be the final peg in the Litebrite of freedom. *shrug* Or it may just make somebody feel good and be just another moment. It’s worth doing. It makes the world a better place than it was before I smiled, even if it’s only on an atomic scale.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 28th, 2004 at 4:36 pm and is filed under Updates From the Void. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.