One Smile or One Bridge

Last Tuesday, Dr. Michael Fowlin came to Providence College to give a presentation called "You Don't Know Me Until You Know Me." On the surface it looks like another program about, yes, diversity. Oh yeah, DIVERSITY. (Again??)

What it came down to it, as he brilliantly showed us through his depiction of different characters, is that we simply don't know a person unless we're willing to get beyond the stereotypes and characterizations that seem to identify a person. And we don't know what a person is experiencing until we take time to reach out and listen.

He shared a story about a man who committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate bridge and later a note was found in his apartment that if one person smiled at him, he would not jump. He jumped. And died.

Although it may seem simplistic to think that one smile can make a difference in the life of another, it may very well can. Or to take time to sit next to a student who is sitting all alone in Ray dining room. What does it take for us to get our eyes off our IPhone, stop tweeting and checking our Facebook, and actually talk to someone?

Dr. Fowlin challenged us to smile at 10 different people this past week. It seems to me that it should be something we should do every week.

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