Be nice…

Some of you may have noticed that this site and my other one at www.improworldtour.com has been down for… Ohhhhh about 2 years.  Yep… I haven’t really missed it.  Still, I thought that my absence from the World Wide Web has somehow left the world in an unbalanced state.  (Really??? No…) So the site is back up and running.  I just need to re-insert some content.

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But WHY? you might ask (and probably didn’t ask,) was the site down?     Well my fine reader of banal information, my site was absent because hackers who believed that they can go around using everyone elses work to somehow earn themselves a few dollars by re-directing other people to their porn and replica watch sites in Russia hacked into my site which caused viruses to infect my audience’s computers.

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I wonder where the world is headed?

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No,  it’s not just my little site I’m worried about.  It’s all the little things where we look out for ourselves, look out for our interests, look out from our eyes and forget that there are other ways to see things.

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Culturally it’s interesting to wander from country to country and see those that take, take, take, with little consideration for the presence of others compared to the cultures who give, give, give and share the world compassionately.

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I’d feel bad to talk about the cultures that seem more TAKE oriented because I know that it’s dangerous to fling around stereotypes BUT… I can tell you that countries with MORE (wealth, potential, etc) aren’t necessarily the giving countries and those who consistently share are not always the people who have a lot to give.

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Recently in South America, I was given more than could be expected from people that did not always have a lot themselves.  In Thailand when there’s only rice in the house, it will likely be shared with a hungry guest.

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So, it’s not about the monetary wealth we’ve accumulated.  There are people who have learned that it’s better to share and build the community than to “take” and build yourself at the expense of your neighbor.

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I’m lucky to live in Canada.  It’s not just ‘birthright pride’.  There’s something else that makes me stay here (besides the laws of most countries that say I cannot move to their territory because I have no marketable skill!).

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When I’m on a bus in Calgary and the bus comes to stop to pick up and drop off people, what would you expect to hear?  Engine sounds?  Breaking sounds?  What about gratitude sounds?   Yep, every few stops from the back of the bus as the passenger leaves he/she yells out “THANK YOU!”.

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Why?  The bus driver is just doing his job.

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Why not?!  It’s nice.  It’s just a nice thing to do.  Friends from other countries are amazed.  I only became aware of the fact that it was even happening about a year ago when a friend visiting from Germany pointed it out and asked, WHY? And the answer:  because it just is the thing to do. (not “right” or “good”…) It wasn’t just nice.  It was the standard.

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I don’t mind being considered a “Nice” country, a country that comes in second place in almost every area except Hockey.  Nope… I like that (for the most part) we are liked because we are “nice”.  And I like that some of the “nice” things are not done because we want to be liked but because it’s simply the standard.

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So, be nice and set a higher standard because as we crowd this planet more each day, we are going to have to learn to curb our anger, to share crowded spaces and bowls of rice with the other people, animals and plants of the planet.

Be nice… don’t hack my site.