Howard White: This I Believe 2008
In his essay “The Power of Hello”, Howard White writes of something his mother told him when he was ten years old, as he ignored a man he knew he would see often in the future. His mother had turned around and told him never to walk by somebody without saying something, because “even a dog can wag its tail when it passes you on the street”. Ever since that moment, White has come to believe that every person deserves to feel someone acknowledge their presence, and that the power of saying a simple hello creates ripples that go way beyond an individual’s view of the pond.
His statement is certainly true. When a person is not ever acknowledged, a feeling of worthlessness soon covers them, and creates huge waves of self-doubt, and probably pain as well. How many suicides would be prevented, if every man and woman made a conscious effort to speak to the people involved in their lives, from the mundane, to the most important? Speaking to the people around you, says White, creates a pathway into their world, and lets them into yours. Such “pathways” promote personal connections and feelings, which create happiness—because the necessity for connections and feelings is a basic human desire, right up there with food and shelter.
No comments:
Post a Comment