I took a convenient selection survey today as I walked back from my class to my dorm. 9/34 of the students were talking on their cell phones, none of the cell phone talkers made eye contact with me, hmmm, we live in a weird society. Another fourth of the students were listening to headphones.
I have a game to play for anyone who likes games that try to de-create our extremely impersonal society. When you are walking by people, lock eyes with them with a smile. Whoever steers their eyes away first loses. If people get weirded out by you, just tell them "what else would I want to look at while I am looking than you, you are the most important thing around." That should calm them down, okay maybe not. It is really funny the responses people will give you. I don't mean to brag, but I have only one loss in this game in my entire career of hundreds of contests, which is the longest in the world since I invented the game. The loss came to a really talented janitor from ECC. I never got her name, but she will always be a legend in my mind.
2 comments:
Dude, this I like this game that you have come up with. I would like to try it. Your description of it made me laugh a lot. It's true, we live in a very impersonal and independent society. I think we need to unlearn a lot of the ideas we have been taught about independence and the fact that we can be totally autonomous and just drop relationships with people if they get uncomfortable for us. I am reading a book right now called Community that is Christian and the first couple of chapters are really interesting, because they talk about the essentialness of community and how our culture has created so many obstacles to genuine community.
HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY!
i love that you do this. i actually play this game too! i didn't know that anyone else did.
i think it is important to connect with people--even in as simple a way as a smile. you never know what impact you may have. sometimes i smile just to let people know that i see them. that we exist. sometimes i get a vibe from people i pass and i just know that in some small way i might encourage them in this world we walk around in that can be so cold. i love it that you do this and it encourages me to know that i am not alone in my smile quest.
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