By Jenita Richards
“When you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you. When you're laughing, the sun comes shining through”
One of my favorite songs sung by Louis Armstrong gives me this idea that smiling is contagious. And I totally buy it. People in New England get a bad rep for being unfriendly and stiff and generally a lot colder than our fellow country brothers. This stereotype doesn’t fly well with me seeing as I’ve met some of the kindest people here.
We can chock it up to culture differences if we want and explain that it’s just the way things are or we can try to show how kind we actually are! What use is a good heart if people have to grow up with you to see it? I’ve heard from countless friends visiting from down south or the west coast talk about how closed off we are. I’ve heard that we don’t smile at strangers, we don’t offer up help, and talking to people we don’t know is a big no-no.
One of my favorite quotes by the Dalai Lama is “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” Reading this quote makes me smile, which I’ll share with someone else. All I ask from that person is to pass that smile on to someone else. Their victim should do the same, and so on.
It’s the little things that can really add up.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama will speak on Oct. 18 and 19 at Western Connecticut State University, and the public is invited to a free showing (video simulcast) in the Ives Concert Hall, 181 White St. To help promote this opportunity, WCSU students in the Writing, Linguistics and Creative Process Department's Advertising, Copywriting and Promotions class created a Twitter page. and they are writing this blog daily.
