You Can Just Do Things

My daughter was disappointed. Nobody at the protest was chanting and, darn it, she was promised chanting!

So she just did it. “No more violence! No more violence!” Within moments, everyone had joined in, raising their signs and chanting in unison.

You can just do things.

Remember that video of the guy on a hill with a bunch of other people around him? And he starts dancing. And nobody joins in? He doesn’t care, and he dances like it.

Pretty soon he gets an accomplice dancing with him. And then another, and then another. Soon enough, everyone on that hill is dancing. The energy is high, folks look like they are enjoying themselves.

You can just do things.

A few weeks ago we baked some cookies and delivered them to neighbors, with accompanying Christmas carols. The cookies weren’t that great, and there were only three of us singing so it wasn’t that impressive. But gosh, it was nice to have an excuse to meet our neighbors. One neighbor told us “we’ve lived here for 4 years and you’re the first people to come caroling.”

You can just do things.

Years ago, my former boss would host Sandwich Club for his old employees who had moved on to other jobs - just a casual way to stay in touch with the community he had built. The premise was simple: lots of sandwiches and an open house. Alas, he hasn’t hosted it for a long time and felt it was too late to start up again.

Well, I had a new house that needed breaking in. $125 of Jimmy John’s and a bunch of invitations later, and we had about 20 old timers in our house, chatting it up, reminiscing, and looking to the future. It was good as anyone could hope for, and my former boss was very grateful that it happened.

You can just do things.

You don’t always have to ask for permission. You don’t need someone to do the thing before you. You don’t have to be conventional or stereotypical or predictable.

You can just do things.