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| Courtesy: Daily Caller |
I can assure you I am not writing about that kind of global warming, although it's tempting because it's so darned scary. What I'm talking about it how each of us as writers and human beings can make the world a "warmer" place to inhabit.
How do we do that, you ask? Two ways. (Actually hundreds of ways, but two I want to focus on.) One is through our writing.
Most of us Roses write romance or mystery that entertains. We want people to read what we write, enjoy it and tell others. By sharing the pleasure of a well-written book with friends, we can raise the happiness temperature by several degrees. Doesn't take much. A nod to a friend in the super market or library. Pointing to a book in a book store. Adding a review on Goodreads, Amazon or Barnes and Noble (I always forget about B&N, so I need to be reminded. Just saying...) Buying and giving a copy to a friend. It takes such a little effort. We should all do more of it even with the insane schedule we writers maintain.
Smile when someone is speaking to you. Nod in recognition of what they are saying. Smile to a stranger. Smile when you answer the phone. The person on the other end will hear the friendliness in your voice. If you get a smile in return, you can bet somewhere along the line others saw the smile. Shouldn't take long for it to go around the world, especially when we can also put one on Facebook or tweet it.
Let me give you two cases in point. I lived in three of the biggest cities in the world before moving to rural Virginia. And I worked in a fourth. I lived in Los Angeles, Tokyo and New York City. I worked in Washington, DC. Uniformly, Tokyo, NYC and DC were inhospitable places. Too many people being self-important, rushing around with their hair on fire, making no eye contact. You have to be anonymous to survive.
One day in Grand Central Station, a place notorious for rushing crowds and no interpersonal recognition, a friend and I ran an experiment. During evening rush hour, we positioned ourselves near two of the busiest computer gates. We smiled at everyone who entered. More than once, the smilee hesitated, missed a step, smiled back and went on. People behind the original smilee looked around to see what was happening and were attacked by the smile police. Before long, we had half a train full of people smiling like village idiots at total strangers.
LA's a whole different dynamic. We lived in our cars, safely protected from interpersonal contact. Although we raced at a grand ten miles an hour on rush-hour freeways, we never looked at drivers who crawled next to us. My girlfriend made it a practice to make eye contact. She'd wave her hands, wear a crazy hat, anything to get the guy in the car next to her to look over. And then what do you think she did?
No, she didn't flash him. She didn't hold up a phone number. She smiled and blew him a kiss. Worked with women too. That small gesture almost always resulted in a smile and a shake of the head.
Now I'm not sure I'd do this in rural America where I might be shot, but I think I going to give the smile attack a try. If I can encourage one person a day to smile, I've had a positive impact on global warming.
What do you say? Are you with me?
