Month: September 2001

… and then I saw her face … and now I’m a believer …

I like happy, friendly people. It’s nice to have someone smile at you.

… I need your goodness … and I love your smile … I love your optimism … You say everything’s gonna be alright …

You know, it’s times like these that people take stock of what they have, that they realize just how much they cherish the people around them, that they tolerate the mistakes and annoyances of people around them. It’s amazing to see people being courteous, generous in fact. At the supermarket, on the freeways, around the office — people are acting like they should.

The sad part is that it takes something terrible to affect people to this extent. And the saddest part is that it won’t last. “Time heals all wounds,” they say, which means that in a few weeks you can expect to see the worst in people start to surface again.

At some point, people stop feeling guilty, stop focusing on the sadness and anger and start to go back to their normal lives. For some, that doesn’t mean much, but for others, it means that they will be prone to their normal attacks of bitter and twisted behavior. Thankfully, there are people who are happy, pleasant, courteous and just downright nice (like Sez, for example) that make going through your day a pleasure.

There used to be a bumper sticker back home that read, “Courtesy is catching.” In the time ahead, I hope that people live and breathe that mantra.

Especially those who normally wouldn’t.

… you can’t always get what you want … but if you try sometimes you just might find … you get what you need …

So if you’ve ever been to a McDonalds (Mickey D’s in Yankee speak, Macca’s in Aussie speak) in the good ol’ U.S. of A, you’ll remember being asked, “ketchup?”.

Now, this is not like the legendary question, “would you like fries with that?” No, that question is valid, and typically your answer will be accepted.

But, “ketchup?” is different. It doesn’t have a correct answer.

You see it doesn’t matter what response you give, when you open up your bag, amongst the 50 napkins that seems to be thrown in with every order, you’re going to find at least 6 ketchup packets. My research says that answering, “no”, tends to indicate that they won’t add any extra packets while you’re watching and that the 6 in the bag will suffice. If you give a positive response, you’re going to get another handful, most likely taking you up to the dozen range.

Americans may like their fries with ketchup, but most Aussies don’t care for it.

“Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun”.

Ketchup?

… swing low … sweet chariot … coming for to carry me home …

Sometimes silence speaks louder than words.

… don’t stand … don’t stand so … don’t stand so close to me …

Space. The final frontier.

I like people. I like being with people. I like being with people that I like being with.

But I like my space.

I hate standing in lines. I’m not a big one for being in a tightly-packed crowd. I get annoyed when people stand in front of me when I go to see a band play.

You see, I like my space.

It’s fine when friends get really close physically, but when random people do it, it gets uncomfortable and I get annoyed. I want to have a little room to move, room to breathe — call it personal space, call it whatever you want.

Other people may not want or need their own space, but I do, and I don’t think I’m alone.

I wonder if I should just cut down on showers.