Can we do this?

It seems that with each passing day our lives become more and more hectic and stressful, and we all seem to try to exist in our own little world as we manage through each day. The truth is that none of us does live in our own little world; we share the planet with everyone else, and our daily actions and words have an effect, sometimes profoundly, on others around us. While few of us realize it, this gives us a tremendous power, and, I believe, that with this power comes responsibility.

We all have the power to dramatically effect each others lives, both for bad and for good. I write this post today, on September 11th, 2007 thinking about the lives effected 6 years ago by a relatively small group of individuals; those that perished, and those left to carry on. Profound effect indeed. Few of us can ever expect to have such dramatic impact on our fellow citizens; positively or negatively. But if each one of us paid attention to the impact we each have on others, and did one or two small nice things for our neighbors, I think we can make the planet a bit less stressful, a bit more friendly, a better place to live.

I'm not talking about each of us adopting a homeless person, or tackling world hunger; these problems are far beyond the power and ability for the majority of us to do anything about. I'm talking about things that we can do something about...simple, old fashioned, common courtesies; holding a door open for someone, saying "Good Morning" to the bus driver, using your turn signal when changing lanes on the highway; giving your fellow citizen the same respect and consideration that you would like. Simple things....that we all can do. Things that somehow seem to have been discarded from our overwhelming stressful lives, but that can, and do, make an impact on our world.

Can we do this?