Community.. What does it bring to mind? Your local community? Your “neighborhood”.

What about work communities? Is their a global community? Are you apart of it?

What have you done for it? What has it done for you? Are our Sons and Daughters dieing overseas a part of it? Will some of our sons and daughters be forever scared for our part in the global community.

Yes they will, as have many fathers, mothers, brother, sisters, friends, and grandparents before. I don’t have any answer I can give as to why they must, or if they should or shouldn’t. I’m opposed to people having to die in battle. Fighting for their country, their neighborhood, their family, at the hand of a terrorist, or even the battles with in themselves (suicide). Unfortunately others don’t feel that way and want to kill for what they believe.

I hope that one day we can evolve to a state where the death is not needed. I am realistic in the fact that I don’t think I will see it in this lifetime or my daughter will see it in her current life. I do believe that the problem is rooted in a lack of happiness. I just don't think happy people go on killing sprees.   I look around me and see people with problems, not enough money, addictions, homelessness, mental issues, stress, road rage, martial problems, peer pressure, not enough time, no “good food”, the car is broke down, the kids are whining, I can’t be every where for everybody all the time, rush rush your late, I’m sick, kid is sick, dog is sick, More bills in the mail, late fees, Milk is spoiled. We can all relate to these. When was the last rainbow you saw? Who is that walking toward me? Look away. No look at them Smile, extend a greeting. Rotten moods spread but so can good ones. Everybody wants to be around the happy person, and they don’t mind helping them out once in awhile either.

Now lets think about that. Here is an example; I worked on a computer help desk. The work load was very high and the people that used to work there were never able to meet the demands. They were in rotten moods most of the time customers would yell and curse at them sometimes. None of them seem to like their jobs. Four of us were sent in to take over and run the help desk and the people there were sent to other jobs. We went in with a positive outlook and had fun. We would help everyone and not let the bad calls get us down. We even would try to see who had the most uneducated user and was still able to help them understand and correct the problem each day kind of informal contests. We worked together as a team, laughed had fun. We used each others strengths to solve what ever problems came up. As a result service reached a whole new level and all of us were promoted to better position. Customer sent in thank you notes for the wonderful service.

Now picture the same environment where you get stomped on by the boss for not solving all of the problems from the day before so your attitude was down before you even talked with the first customer. Or your commute was horrid and you’re an hour late.

Lets look at the commute first as it could be not near as bad if the person you relieve (or your Boss) smiled when you came in and said I understand. Take a sec. It is under control. You can make the time up later in the week if you want.

Now if the same Boss that stomped you for not solving the problems waited till the morning rush of things were done and came to you and said I’m looking at issues from yesterday and want to get your input on how to help you handle these unresolved problems.

Hmm. then when you went home at the end of the day you might be the one nice person that let someone merge into traffic instead of sticking him to the ramp so he has to come to a complete stop and all the cars behind him too. Then those people could be happier.

The hard part is being one of the people that says I have fought life enough today I’m going to do my best to enjoy it. After all it is a quality of life issue. Happiness seems to be more in learning to enjoy what you have then in fighting for what someone else has.

If we all tried to make it a little better for the next guy someone will always take advantage of it, but that is ultimately their problem and only your if your forced to make it so (i.e. police, judges, and others we as a community charge with that duty). For the rest of us this would be a better community.

I would love it if everyone would volunteer several hours a week to an organization in their community or donate some funds toward a project for your community but we can't all do that for one reason or another. Am I asking to much for a smile? That one simple act can make the entire world a better place. You never know what impact passing a bit of happiness to another will have.