{"id":157,"date":"2010-05-04T13:56:13","date_gmt":"2010-05-04T20:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.juliasshaw.com\/blog\/?p=157"},"modified":"2010-05-04T13:56:13","modified_gmt":"2010-05-04T20:56:13","slug":"build-a-better-world-in-one-simple-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.juliasshaw.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/04\/build-a-better-world-in-one-simple-step\/","title":{"rendered":"Build a Better World in One Simple Step"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note that I didn’t say one easy<\/strong> step. Unfortunately the default programming of humans seems to be tribal competitiveness. However I believe there is a cure. A cure that doesn’t cost a dime.<\/p>\n

Have you ever noticed how, most of the time, when a person you love and care about says or does something you instantly find a way to interpret it in a positive light and even if you can’t find a positive interpretation you assume that it was a mistake or, at worst, due to ignorance. Now take that same action, that same statement, and imagine it coming for someone you abhor or distrust. You know, one of them<\/em>. A person who you struggle to be in the same room with. Notice how differently you react…<\/p>\n

Evolutionary biologists tell us this is rooted in our tribal hunter gatherer roots. A time when anybody not part of your closest circle of companions was a competitor in a life or death struggle for resources. Generation after generation has honed this behavior or, quite simply, ceased to exist.<\/p>\n

I don’t know about you, but I don’t compete with the stranger I pass on the street for my very survival or for the survival of my loved ones. I can offer that stranger a smile and both our days are a little brighter, a little warmer, because we connected as humans. Humans with nothing particular to gain. Just humans saying I don’t know you, but I bet you’re a good person too.<\/p>\n

So that leads us to my proposal. You don’t have to smile at everyone you see. That might be a little uncomfortable or even creepy \ud83d\ude42 What I intend to do for the month of May is to assume that whatever somebody says or does they are, at their core, a good person<\/em><\/strong> and I will do my best to interpret their every action as if it were being done by the person I love and respect most in the world. I’m willing to bet that this will make it a great month. Won’t you join me?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note that I didn’t say one easy step. Unfortunately the default programming of humans seems to be tribal competitiveness. However I believe there is a cure. A cure that doesn’t cost a dime. Have you ever noticed how, most of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-categories-suck-tags-rule","tag-a-better-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.juliasshaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.juliasshaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.juliasshaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.juliasshaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.juliasshaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.juliasshaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.juliasshaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.juliasshaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.juliasshaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}