Greeting Strangers

The other day I had a sudden urge to violate yet another social norm. To read about my first one click here. Now as some people put it, our society is prone to indifference to people they do not know. I decided to ignore this foolishness. I waved at a group of girls from a distance and when I got close enough I wished them a good day. They murmured their replies in such a way, as if they thought I was mistaking them for someone else.
"Uh, hi."
The word "Uh." A word of uncertainty. A word that screams, WHAT IS SHE DOING? and IS SHE OUT OF HER MIND? and my favorite, WHAT, WHO IS SHE, WHAT IS HAPPENING. ACT COOL. BUT WHAT DO I SAY?
"Uh, hi."
I gave them a final nod as I walked away, their suspicious eyes followed me until I opened the door to the café where I went to meet my friends.

I want to know why we are surprised when random strangers wish us a good day, or when a random person smiles at another. We have become distrustful of one another and wary of strangers. Of course we shouldn't be naïve and go around a city with a high crime rate at night to just walk around saying nice things to strangers. They might eat you up alive. All I'm saying is maybe we should take up kindness when we see it. If someone greets you, don't automatically assume they have an ulterior motive to mug you.

AMOK Reflections

If you didn't read my last post, I talked about how today I was going to run AMOK (Annual Melee of Kindness) by going around to random people who were shopping and wish them a happy Annual Melee of Kindness. Then, I would hand them a heartfelt, handwritten card about life and living and cherishing every little thing. Later, I'd go out to the parking lot and tag cars with sticky notes with messages saying, “Have a beautiful day!” or “You’re awesome!” Or even, “I love your car!” 

Well, all I have to say is mission accomplished! It was fun and it felt really good to make people happy, and the reactions I got to the notes were usually smiles and thanks. But some people were shocked, as if they had never gotten such a card before. I hope I made their day though. The most memorable one was this one lady who I was wary to approach at first because she looked angry and pouty. I went up to here anyway and wished her a happy AMOK day and gave her the card. Her eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and the most beautiful look of gratitude crossed her face. She thanked me dearly and told me what a kind and beautiful gesture this was. 

I’m glad I made some people’s days a little lighter, to say the least. It was really fun too! I’m looking forward to doing it again next year!

A Few More Hours!

AHHHHH! I CAN'T WAIT TO RUN AMOK!

Only a few hours left until I get to go out in my sock monkey hat spreading smiles and joy to random people. So I wrote around two dozen heartfelt letters and I'm going to give them out at the mall near my house. Oh and I'm leaving sticky notes on peoples cars with a little message saying, "Have an amazing day!" Or, "Just keep smilin'!" It's going to be great!

Here's one of the five different letters I wrote, the envelope that says "Happy AMOK Day!", the sticky notes, and the front where I put fake stamp stickers for the heck of it.

Weapons I used to kill with kindness. 

Say Nice Things

I'm so excited for tomorrow! I'm going to do AMOK (Annual Melee of Kindness) at the mall (hopefully, we'll see). I'll tell you all about it once I get back, but for now I want to share a video Improv Everywhere did in New York. It is a rewarding feeling to make someone's day or even just make them smile. I hope to achieve that tomorrow.

I Need You All To Run AMOK

Hey everyone! An organization called Random Acts is running it's first official Annual Melee of Kindness (AMOK) campaign. Their goal is to have as many people as possible going around and doing random acts of kindness to other people. This years AMOK is on March 4, 2012! You can do anything you want to be nice to others; buy someone some coffee, help someone with their groceries, hand out flowers; be creative! {Leave someone a happy note on their car or pass out positive notes in a public place, to name a couple that I might be participating in.}

If you're interested in this event, here's the AMOK homepage, and here are the guidelines. I hope you choose to run AMOK with us! It'll be fun and you'll put a smile on some people's faces, I'm sure!