Soundtrack: Divenire by Ludovico Einaudi
I was walking back home after a spot of grocery shopping an hour or so ago. I wasn’t in any particular hurry and found myself observing the many faces that passed by. Some looked relaxed, a couple looked really worried and yet some others looked blank and expressionless.
At that moment, it struck me that we must walk by millions of faces in a lifetime. Add in a bit of travel in densely populated nations to that and the number would easily be in the hundreds of millions..
That’s a hundred million stories. Every person walking has a story of his/her own – a past, hopes about a future, a mood, a reason for the mood, an outlook, a belief system, some sadness, some happiness. We might have passed by many who are in the midst of the best time of their lives and yet some others going through their worst.
But, each with their own story.
Now, consider this for a moment – by smiling, by saying a nice word, by being appreciative, by holding the door open, by showing a bit of kindness, a bit of consideration, we have probably positively impacted so many of these stories. We may have turned many a mood from bad to good, we may have turned a day around, sprinkled a bit of hope, added a bit of joy.. and maybe even saved a life.
There is often talk about changing the world by building great things. But imagine just walking around being the best we can be – and changing the world by being kind, nice and humane to one person at a time. Maybe we’d impact a 100 million souls over the course of a life time..
If we aren’t doing that, I wonder.. I just wonder.. what the hell else are we doing that’s more important?
“Be excellent to each other.“
Words to live by.
A Learning a Day 