Your story of Mary stepping in to serve your family, when it was needed is a reminder that people notice when we least expect it. “Expect to be surprised” is a mantra that I remind myself of when such serendipitous acts occur.

Mary demonstrated all sorts of positive acts: leadership, kindness, service. These are the virtues we cherish at the end of the day when we stop to breathe and ponder what it's all about.

Knowing that these quiet positive acts far outweigh the negative acts in the world, wouldn't it be helpful if the media started to focus on such positive acts?

I thank you for your contribution.

Before social media, I didn’t always know *what to do*. But now, it’s as if someone handed me an instruction manual and said “here’s how you can help”.

Part of the reason, I think, is that your actions are simply more apt to seen. I would like to believe I am the type of person who – when no one is looking — would pick up a squashed water bottle and throw it out. But the truth is, often things like that *aren’t even in my consciousness* when I am alone. It’s not that I have a problem with picking up a water bottle. It’s that I don’t even *see* it.

Now, I see the problems that need to be solved because they are part of a ‘collective consciousness’. And I see the results. And I have been able to make fundamental shifts in my behavior that spill over into my real life.

I was at a meeting where and we were talking about the fact that maybe ROI on places like Twitter should be called “Return on Generosity” instead. The guy I was talking to said that he truly believed that seeing all of the overwhelming sharing and generosity on Twitter had caused him to be a better person in real life. He gave the example of just holding doors open – now, even if someone is many steps away from the door he has the patience to hold it open, really wait for them to go through, and interact with them as they do. Like me, he now “sees that squished water bottle” wherever he goes, acts on it, and gets rewarded tenfold each time.

Thank you for your thoughtful post.

Thank you for your story. It was the spontaneous acts of service (plural in your case) that sparked such positivity in you. It seems the turning is described in the quote below.

“New Yorkers are neurotic because they expect the worst from people, and so did I. And I couldn’t have been more wrong. The first to surprise me were the reps on the phone when I called to cancel the cards while my wife drove us home to the suburbs. All of them genuinely expressed interest, asked me questions, and reassured me that no harm would be done. Then, when I got home around 2am, an email was waiting in my inbox titled “your wallet”! A nice midtown dentist who had gotten in the taxi right after me found my wallet, and emailed me the taxi medallion number. He emailed me from the taxi in real time – “sent from my iPhone” – thank you technology!”

Great story. By the way, I have a marvelous New York cab story to tell. Stay tuned.

http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/confessions-techie/200903/how-i-lost-my-wallet-and-maintained-my-innocence

– Ran

Your story of Mary stepping in to serve your family, when it was needed is a reminder that people notice when we least expect it. “Expect to be surprised” is a mantra that I remind myself of when such serendipitous acts occur.

Mary demonstrated all sorts of positive acts: leadership, kindness, service. These are the virtues we cherish at the end of the day when we stop to breathe and ponder what it’s all about.

Knowing that these quiet positive acts far outweigh the negative acts in the world, wouldn’t it be helpful if the media started to focus on such positive acts?

I thank you for your contribution.