Saturday, July 12, 2014

Be nice

Snarkiness, ad hominem insults, "spin" and just plain meanness for the sake of meanness are certainly nothing new, but in today's world of social media, sometimes they can get really depressing. When that happens, I try to take a step back and notice the good stuff.
Like a teenager who, yesterday at the Kennett Y, was in a hurry and accidentally bumped into me. She stopped. She looked me in the eye. She said, "Excuse me!" (And she didn't even add "Ma'am," bless her heart.)
And last week, I was driving around looking at storm damage and, on a nearby back road, was taking a photo of some hard-working utility guys cutting branches and fixing downed wires. A local mushroom farmer pulled up, unloaded two big boxes of beautiful, just-picked mushrooms from his truck and took them over to the workers as a thank-you present.
Even I tried to get in on the act. I saw a woman wearing one of those horizontally striped, knit maxi-dresses that seem so popular this summer. As tough as that look is to pull off (stripes? knit? I ask you!), she succeeded brilliantly. I went up to her and told her she looked fabulous. She was stunned (I hope in a good way).
There is hope yet.

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