Nice week

Filed under: Birthdays, Improving Society
6 Comments

Here's what I would like as a birthday present, from as many of you as are willing to participate:

Be nice to someone this week. At least once this week, try saying (or writing) something nice to someone, or doing something nice for them, or cutting them some extra slack. Maybe even someone you wouldn't normally be nice to. Maybe even a total stranger.

If "nice" doesn't work for you, try "kind," or "gentle," or "patient" or "sympathetic" or "forgiving." Anything along those lines.

And then, if you're willing to, and if it goes well, stop back by here and post a comment about it.

I'm tempted to create a new "Unicorns & Flowers" category to apply to this entry (and to others that I'll be posting this week), so that y'all who are allergic to saccharine can avoid such entries in the future. But it occurred to me last week that this would honestly please me.

As always, participation is optional, as is anonymity. And as always, feel free to send email if you'd rather not post publicly.

6 Responses to “Nice week”

  1. Mary Anne Mohanraj

    I spent an hour on the phone advising a writer about whether she should go back to work now that her kid is ready for day care, try writing on her own for a while, or consider an MFA program. Of course, I did that before I read your journal entry, but it still counts as nice, right? 🙂

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  2. Mary Robinette Kowal

    I created a wikipedia entry for David Louis Edelman because I didn’t want him to be without one on the Campbell awards page.

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  3. Cj

    Since my Great Aunt Ann’s attitude was that the whole month your birthday is in should count as a birthday, I will share last week’s random act of kindness. The golf course I bartend for it almost within bicycling distance of Disneyland and the Anaheim convention center, so we get a lot of people who come by for a round of golf by taxi or having been dropped off. This fellow from South Dakota had come along with his son and grandson. In guess in South Dakota you don’t have to pay to be on the golf course as long as you aren’t golfing (you can keep someone company). You can’t do that in California. So this poor guy sent his son and grandson along to golf, and was trying to find something to do near by four, most likely, five hours. He was an older gentleman he couldn’t walk very well, and it was too hot a day for him to go very far. I was just getting off work, and figured his hotel couldn’t be that far away, so I just drove him back there were he could read “The wonderful book he had” and lounge near the pool. Why he didn’t just call a taxi, I don’t know, but he was very grateful and it was not out of my way.

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  4. Sarah Prineas

    You got it.

    Happy birthday week, Jed!

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  5. Debby

    A friend came over to visit today. It became obvious, as she lay down on the couch and asked me to turn out the light, that she was exhausted. I took her one year old into the other room and played with him. This was during David’s nap, my only time off of the day.

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  6. Jed

    Yay! Thank you all, both for doing stuff and for letting me know about it. (And yes, stuff you did before you saw this entry counts.)

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