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"There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people." -Vincent Van Gogh |
There is such an infinite listing of things on the internet, offering suggestions as to how you can help, it almost seems like redundant piracy to list them here. So here follows awhollotta links.
There are basically three ways you can approach this, this campaign to TAKE BACK VALENTINES.
1. You can volunteer.
2. You can give something to someone–someone who matters dearly, or to a perfect stranger. Or someone who is right inbetween. . .that senior citizen neighbor, or that poor homeless soul that you’ve never spoken to, but they are always there. . .
3. You can commit a Random Act of Kindness (or a scheduled and repeated Act of Kindness, for that matter.)
Numbers 2 & 3 may seem to overlap, and they sort of do, but it is worth keeping them separate, as this may prompt you to think of new possibilities.
For example, seeking out the store manager at a grocery store, a Walmart, whatever and paying a high compliment about a worker will not only change everybody’s mood, it may even change the life of the person being complimented: once, I frequented a Kinkos’ printing shop in Los Angeles that was always crazy busy but understaffed. The African-American employee who seemed to ALWAYS be there never failed to remember your name, your interests, why you went to the Kinko’s. She finally got fired because enough people complained that she took too long, even though there were often a couple dozen customers and only one of her. So a bunch of us, all regular customers, wrote a group letter about how great she was. They rehired her. That action cost nothing and was not really a gift or an object given to someone–it was more Category 3–but it made all the difference.
The most fun part of this corporate compliment ambush is the look on the manager's face--or, alternatively, the tone in the manager's voice, if you have asked to speak to a supervisor during a customer service call. The manager/supervisor will be SO SHOCKED that you are not a Karen seeking out the boss to try and get some poor schlub fired, they will almost fall over from the shock of it as they stare at you, wide-eyed and befuddled. They aren't sure how to process a compliment! (Have you ever noticed that everybody has time to seek out a manager to try and get someone fired--but nobody has three minutes to corner the manager and give them and their employee a big fat compliment. Sad. But you can fix that. Starting today.)
Perhaps one of the most important possibilities here (call it a 4th Category, with overlaps as above), an opportunity that is often overlooked (maybe by people looking for an excuse to NOT volunteer) is that there is an entire category of volunteering–and Random Acts of Kindness–that you can do in your jammies, sitting on your ass, while lying in bed. You cannot ask much more of a volunteering gig, and it can’t ask much less of you. While I wouldn’t suggest showing up for a volunteering opportunity wearing just your pjs or your underwear–especially where children are involved–this is a wonderful category, because it essentially obliterates all excuses against volunteering. Here is a beautiful list of how you can be a Virtual Angel.
And if nothing here excites you, do research of your own! After all, you would happily spend a few hours binge watching your favorite show, or playing a video game, or cruising the web “incognito”. You know what I mean. You can spend a few damn minutes helping to save the world.
Just my opinion.
There are basically three ways you can approach this, this campaign to TAKE BACK VALENTINES.
1. You can volunteer.
2. You can give something to someone–someone who matters dearly, or to a perfect stranger. Or someone who is right inbetween. . .that senior citizen neighbor, or that poor homeless soul that you’ve never spoken to, but they are always there. . .
3. You can commit a Random Act of Kindness (or a scheduled and repeated Act of Kindness, for that matter.)
Numbers 2 & 3 may seem to overlap, and they sort of do, but it is worth keeping them separate, as this may prompt you to think of new possibilities.
For example, seeking out the store manager at a grocery store, a Walmart, whatever and paying a high compliment about a worker will not only change everybody’s mood, it may even change the life of the person being complimented: once, I frequented a Kinkos’ printing shop in Los Angeles that was always crazy busy but understaffed. The African-American employee who seemed to ALWAYS be there never failed to remember your name, your interests, why you went to the Kinko’s. She finally got fired because enough people complained that she took too long, even though there were often a couple dozen customers and only one of her. So a bunch of us, all regular customers, wrote a group letter about how great she was. They rehired her. That action cost nothing and was not really a gift or an object given to someone–it was more Category 3–but it made all the difference.
The most fun part of this corporate compliment ambush is the look on the manager's face--or, alternatively, the tone in the manager's voice, if you have asked to speak to a supervisor during a customer service call. The manager/supervisor will be SO SHOCKED that you are not a Karen seeking out the boss to try and get some poor schlub fired, they will almost fall over from the shock of it as they stare at you, wide-eyed and befuddled. They aren't sure how to process a compliment! (Have you ever noticed that everybody has time to seek out a manager to try and get someone fired--but nobody has three minutes to corner the manager and give them and their employee a big fat compliment. Sad. But you can fix that. Starting today.)
Perhaps one of the most important possibilities here (call it a 4th Category, with overlaps as above), an opportunity that is often overlooked (maybe by people looking for an excuse to NOT volunteer) is that there is an entire category of volunteering–and Random Acts of Kindness–that you can do in your jammies, sitting on your ass, while lying in bed. You cannot ask much more of a volunteering gig, and it can’t ask much less of you. While I wouldn’t suggest showing up for a volunteering opportunity wearing just your pjs or your underwear–especially where children are involved–this is a wonderful category, because it essentially obliterates all excuses against volunteering. Here is a beautiful list of how you can be a Virtual Angel.
And if nothing here excites you, do research of your own! After all, you would happily spend a few hours binge watching your favorite show, or playing a video game, or cruising the web “incognito”. You know what I mean. You can spend a few damn minutes helping to save the world.
Just my opinion.
