Most of us are familiar with the concept of leaving things in better condition than we found them. Whether you’re visiting a park or a campground and you pack out your own trash as well as the litter left by someone else, or you’re staying at a friend’s home as a guest and you strip the bed and wipe down the sink before you leave. (Understanding a concept and actually applying it to everyday life are not one and the same, unfortunately.)
“Try and leave this world a little better than you found it, and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate, you have not wasted your time but have done your best.”
Robert Baden-Powell, scouting founder in the US
The concept could — and should — be applied to our interactions with other humans. What if we made a concerted effort to leave every person we encounter a little better than how we found them? It doesn’t take much. A smile, a kind greeting, or a compliment go a long way toward improving the human experience. If you’ve ever been down in the mulligrubs and run into one of “those” people, the ones with a ready smile and a cheerful tone, a quick hug or a goofy joke, you know how powerful it can be to change your own mood.
Whether it’s a brief interaction with someone at the grocery store or a lengthy visit with a friend or family, instead of thinking about yourself — what they’re thinking about you, or what you hope to get out of the encounter — let’s ask this: How can I get this person to feel really great at the end of this time together? Whether that’s a five-minute interaction with a total stranger or the people who live with you.
We’re going to run into folks (and some days we will be those folks) who are grumpy and surly and snide, but we don’t have to mirror their bad attitude. Reflecting their anger or criticism won’t help them and it certainly won’t help us. It might be our default response, but we can do better, and when we do, we’ll leave the world a little better than we found it, one person at a time.
By NIKI TURNER – editor@editorht1885.com