Andrea's Ten Year Kindness Experiment
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With every contact I make,
and every time I am kind or generous to someone I pay
attention to how he, she treats me in return. Usually the
recipient is in a higher financial bracket than I - not
unusual considering my personal circumstances - and many
times the response is lack of manners or apathy. Some will
accept, and others will not. Sometimes I receive the
obligatory "thank you" and that's fine. But more than half
of the people for whom I do something unexpected (always
something they have expressed a need or desire for) treat
me with contempt or disrespect thereafter.
Quite a few refuse to every speak to me again. That's sad,
because they then miss out on more of my generosity. It
doesn't matter if I tell each person upfront that I am
writing about my experience with him or her... the response
is still often very unkind or impolite.
I plan to write about my experiences, not as a complaint,
but as a means to analyzing the behavior to understand it.
I will call it
The Kindness Experiment and everyday I collect new
material. Everyone is fair game... including the people who
enter my essay contests.
Ten
years ago I owned a Bed and Breakfast in Toronto
where I hosted
and entertained authors and visitors from all over the
world. It was my dream fulfilled. Then I experienced a home
invasion and had to shut down my home and business and
leave everything behind to stay safe. I'm one who turns
lemons into lemon meringue pie (one of my new talks), so here's what I
decided to do....
I wanted to see how people would treat me:
a. if I revealed to professionals and neighbors who
didn't know me that something catastrophic had happened to
me, and
b. if I treated them with all the kindness I could.
The results were astounding and baffling. It is my
experiences over the past ten years that I want to share in
both book form and as speaking opportunities in schools,
universities, large practices, business conferences,
conventions, etc.
I have ideas to share with lawyers, physicians, realtors,
teachers, landlords, neighborhood and community groups.
Book
publishers may contact me if they
want to see my book proposal.
Newspaper
editors may publish a sample
column for free.
Meeting
planners may contact me to discuss
my addressing their group's needs when I speak or conduct a
seminar.
crisiswriter@gmail.com
