Crasses et Voluptés

 I often say to the students, in part, because I need to hear it myself, is, “You know, how many of you know the names of the people on either side?”  Because in my day, you would know the names of everybody in the, in your neighborhood.  And, what would happen if every day you took five minutes and you asked the person on your left and your right, “Is everything OK?”  And if it wasn’t, like, “Oh no, I need to go to the drug store.”  Or just something like that.  Because a lot of things are easily rectifiable even if they’re difficult.  And, you know, as again, maybe as naïve as it sounds, would not the world get a lot better in five minutes if everyone did that?  So I don’t see that, I guess, as any less important, just the little things.  In fact, I find sometimes just like looking up and saying hello to somebody goes a long way.  And, so maybe it’s not always about winning a Nobel Peace Prize.  Maybe it’s just paying attention and giving somebody a hello that could make a lot of strategic difference.