What Christianity is All About

As I watched Bono accepted the NAACP Chairman's Award, I was inspired to think that an Irish Rocker from Dublin - along with three others - has been able to inspire the world with his message of compassion and respect for human beings all over the world. And more than give the man accolades for his accomplishments, I think of how this man's heart has been captured by what means the most in our world: promoting the dignity and honour of humanity.

There are a lot of things said about Christianity that cause one to think whether it holds the answer for the future of our world. Some things are truly embarrassing and misrepresent what this religion has been about as explained and portrayed by Jesus of Nazareth. Those embarrassments have caused people to look away. But the truth about Christianity lies in what Bono says in his acceptance speech at the NAACP Awards.

Christianity has always been about the foundation of love established by Jesus Christ that renews and recovers our world from the evil that so debilitates it. As a fellow Christian I could not be more proud of my brother, Paul Hewson [Bono] for his strength and courage to act on behalf of those who have no one to speak for them and remind us of the power God has given us as human beings to help others and make our world a place worth living in!

I applaud you Bono for not falling into the temptation of self-aggrandizement but using your influence to help those who truly need help in our world. God's face does shine on you. Its people like you that encourage me to know that what I believe is real and holds the true hope for the future of humanity and our planet.

Learning for the Future

Experiential Learning ....




This scene in the movie, The Guardian, is one of the best examples I've seen in film that portrays what experiential learning is all about. These coast guard trainees could have spent hours in the classroom studying the various stages of hypothermia and learning about what happens to a person throughout these stages but nothing replaces them actually going through the stages themselves and feeling what its like. That's experiential learning.

We're going to see a lot more of this kind of learning in the future. Students today want to not only gather head knowledge but they especially want to learn by experience. The more we can tailor education with continual opportunities for experiential learning the more success we will have in passing on the knowledge and experience to the next generation. The only way to truly ensure that what we teach others is absorbed and put into practice is to put the student into real settings that cause them to experience and so be able to explain from their own experience what they learn.

I know some may say right about this point that some things cannot be experienced. I'm trying to work that one out myself. What knowledge besides trivial facts that play no part in the real experience of everyday life, cannot be experienced? I understand that there needs to be class time and I'm not disputing it but when I want someone to get something I want to know that they got it. Simply hearing me tell others does not ensure they get it. When I hear others explain from their own experience then I know they get it.

One of the greatest ways of learning that has survived the ages is what we call today "job-shadowing." Making time for the novice to walk alongside us to watch what others do and to be involved with those who have spent years doing what the novice wants to learn to do as well. I think our co-op programs in our colleges and universities are capitalizing on this time tested method of learning. Mentoring programs facilitate this kind of learning as well. And those that have done an excellent job of teaching others have been masters at having novices hang around.

As a teacher, what moved me about what was portrayed in the clip above was that the instructor was involved with the students in experiencing something that he himself experienced many times before. Knowing the limits of such an experience and providing a safe, controlled environment to experience it, he gave those students something they would never learn in the classroom.

We need classrooms, and we need knowledge, but we also need to provide those who want to learn with the necessary experiences that will allow them to understand the reality of their world and their place in it. The future depends on it.

Pressing the "Easy" Button

As I'm thinking about the future, I recall those Staples Business Depot commercials where a person presents a difficult problem and another person offers them the "easy" button to press. Of course I get the "tongue in cheek" and I love recalling this commercial to my co-workers and students that I teach when they come to me with their difficulties.

One thing is for sure about the future - it doesn't come with the simple push of the "easy" button! If we want success in the future [whatever it may be: in relationships, in our business, in our personal endeavors] it will demand hard work. Like anything in this life, good things come to those who role up their sleeves and make it happen. Its clear that we've been given a large degree of control in our western society over our own future. We grumble about our politicians and about high gas prices but compared to the rest of the world, we enjoy a considerable amount of freedom that other don't have. I think with such a privilege comes responsibility.

I know I sound heavy, but realistically too many things in our present life are taken far too lightly and if we want a bright future we need to step up to the plate and work toward it. One very effective way of doing so is to work with others toward common goals for the benefit of society. We "western" people have the ability to affect change not only in our own "neck of the woods" but also around the world. We've been reminded by Al Gore that our environmental behaviour [both good and bad] does affect the rest of the world. I'm glad people like him are waking us up [some of you may have liked the Oscar performance of the song] to the need for us to be serious about our actions and be much more intentional about how we are going to live and what we will focus on today for the sake of tomorrow.

A bright future does not happen overnight. We need to realize that the freedom and productivity that we presently enjoy in our world comes at the price of those who invested into our future a long time ago. These were people who fought insurmountable battles so that we could enjoy what we do today. My grandfather always reminds me that we were born 'in the flowers.' By reminding me, I understand what he wants me to realize: that his early life was no where near as easy as mine and that his generation paid a great price [sacrifici] so that we could be born among "the flowers."

I think its high time we stop the nonense about looking for an "easy" way out and set our minds and hearts together to build the future so that others [our children - the next generation] can enjoy the world we purposely built for them. Just for fun - stop by a Staples store and find the aisle where they sell the "easy" button. Go ahead and press it and then see what happens? I don't think you'll be surprised at the results.

Do We Really Care?

What I'm noticing these days are the sayings on T-shirts in Bluenotes and West 49. As a parent of a teenager and a pre-teen, I'm shocked at the sexually explicit comments on the Ts. I'm not shocked that sexuality is a topic in teenage culture but I am shocked at the blatant statements and teens bearing these statements. I know that High Schools and middle Schools do ban students from wearing them. As a parent, I'm glad that they've taken this position.

In my effort to understand why, I notice that apathy is at the source of this. The apathy in particular I'm speaking of is that of parents themselves. There is an underlying tone in some parents that teenagers will be involved in stuff that's bad. The words I hear to describe this are, "they're experimenting - they'll get over it." But I see teenagers who repeatedly get caught into the slippery slope of deeper into drugs and deeper into sexual promiscuity. I'm wondering if they are doing this to catch our attention, except that our apathy is preventing them from catching our attention.

I say this because I think what's behind the explicit statements on Ts is an 'in your face' attitude by manufacturers and designers in taunting adults in their apathy. Students have caught on to this and I believe use it to see how far they can go without parents noticing. If this is true, then I think teenagers view adults as morons. [yes I know its strong but I think its true] I think they view adults as stupid and don't care. My question is, do we really not care about the condition of our teenagers? I also see parents that are concerned and involved in their teenagers life. My worry is that there is not enough of us concerned to turn the tide of youth problems in our culture.

At some point, as parents and adults, we need to step up and take responsibility for our teenagers. They will be our next leaders, shapers of culture, protectors of the common good. We are losing many of them to drugs, alcohol and sexually transmitted diseases. By not caring enough, we are forcing them into a state of insecurity that breeds the abuses. I dare say that if we truly start caring enough, we can provide an atmosphere where our teenagers feel secure about who they are, are supported in their hopes and dreams and are given healthy boundaries where they can party without hurting themselves and others and flexible enough so that it doesn't stifle their enthusiasm and energy.

If we are going to have an impact on helping our teenagers, we need to prioritize our lives so that we can give time to building relationships with our teens and supporting them in their learning activities and life goals. We need to provide the resources as well but time is what they're looking for. They're calling out to us - want us to notice them - and I fear we are continuing to ignore them and placing other things as priorities. For me, every teenager is important to our community and we can't afford to have them waste their lives and we can't continue ignoring them!!!

A Whole New Meaning to Irreverent

Nothing really surprises me these days. Take for instance the recent comments on the performance of John Stewart as the host of the Academy Awards Show. The oxymoron I heard mentioned how "irreverent" John Stewart was that night. Let me get this straight: people are upset that John Stewart was "irreverent." Well that's a big surprise! How dare John Stewart be "irreverent!" - and at the Academy Awards no less in front of all those "important" people.

I have to say personally that I found him quite funny. I'm speaking now out of my own appreciation for sarcasm and irreverence of those who profess to be "reverent." For me, the whole issue boils down to semantics and reality. The semantic issue is the unnecessary use of the word "irreverent." I'm mean really - does Hollywood demand the "reverence" of us peasants who buy the movie tickets to watch the movies that Hollywood produces so that actors, directors, producers and all other related professionals can sit on a hill of splendor and Lord it over us?

What at times makes me shake my head is the self-indulgence of Hollywood that is so clearly displayed at the Oscars. Us peasants need a John Stewart to keep it real and show us how ridiculous Hollywood truly is at times. I can respect someone who is good at their profession and I can also respect the need for art and film but I can't respect those who only demand respect and never give it. I know that I'm making a generalization but I have to think that $100,000 booty to every Oscar winner is truly unnecessary. Why don't they donate the money to a worthy cause on behalf of the winner? Why don't they take the same desire for integrity they impose on us by encouraging us to not pirate their films and hold themselves to the integrity of spending their resources [which they get from us anyway - we buy the tickets] to help humanity rather than create a mythical demi-god society.

I was so pleasantly surprised that "Crash" won the Oscar for best movie. Yes - there is a ray of light even in Hollywood! Rather than vote for the "avante guard" movie of the year that challenged societal phobia of homosexuality, they voted for a film that depicts the true "irreverence" dished out everyday from one human being to the other. I thought they made the right choice. Crash was truly the movie of the year as it portrayed how truly insane humanity has become. Yes - Hollywood does have a conscience! Thank you for reminding us that reverence belongs to every single human life - but please [this goes out to the media and to Hollywood] - do not use such semantics to comment on someone - who for the most part - tries to keep it real by reminding us not to take ourselves so seriously!

The future needs the "reverence" for human life to return to the social stage. Bravo to artists like U2 who can handle the fame and use it to raise the level of "reverence" for life reminding us that there are truly big problems in the world that we can conquer if we put our hands together and "reverence" what is worthy of "reverence!"

We'll Need Real Leaders in the Future!

Where have all the real leaders gone? Say what you will about our past Canadian Prime Ministers [Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Lester B. Pearson, John Diefenbaker] but I don't think anyone would contest that they were real leaders who lead our country in a way that gave it a sense of dignity on the world stage. After watching the political debates on TV, I wonder where all the leaders have gone? No real issues were discussed but rather each candidate was concerned about their performance and how well they could diss their opponents.

Available good leaders at present in Canada are at an all time low. The real leaders are lurking in the background. I don't know if anyone has been trying to recruit them or inspire them toward the political arena. All our candidates lack a certain something. The more I think about it the more I think they lack true intelligence that can be applied to giving our Country a sense of vision and purpose. I think of Trudeau's sense of a "just society" where people can live in a land that is void of the prejudices and social decay that presses in on people. We seem to be consumed these days about finances in general and nothing else in particular. Oh for a leader with intelligence, guts and determination - one who will stand with the people rather than the bureaucrats - one who will lead our nation into a place of distinction giving it a vision and something to look forward.

My present summation of what is available to us is the following:

• I appreciated Paul Martin as finance minister and the determination of the liberal party to be fiscally responsible and bring our government out of the overspending of the 80s and 90s but I've lost respect for a party that has been unable to maintain a consistent integrity as they govern our country. The more I hear Paul speak, the more I think he is trying to fulfill a dream his father had rather than lead by conviction and vision.
• Although Steven Harper and his party seem to hold similar convictions about morality and social behaviour that I do, he lacks a sense of confidence by his demeanor and past rumblings in his own caucus speak of dissension that is probably quiet now that they seem to be on the verge of winning an election but will certainly unveil itself in their term of power if they succeed.
• The bloc has never been an alternative since I live in Ontario. I respect the fact that we live in a country that makes it possible for the bloc to exist but their separatist leaning gives me nothing to adhere to or to build relationship with.
• Jack Layton and his party have fundamental roots in a sense of social justice that continues to be verbally conveyed but the party has always been too entrenched in the labour unions to truly attempt a viable platform for social justice. Memories of the Bob Rae government linger and so give me no confidence in this party and their leader.

Maybe we need another party? We certainly need reform of some sort. But most of all we need some good leaders. Right now, I sense a lack of true leadership. I think its time that we groom our children, our young people and young adults toward a sense of social leadership that will exude confidence in the future. Let's uphold the sense of virtue for public office by encouraging our young people to get involved and make a difference. Lets mentor them and coach them so that they may fulfill their dreams and bring a sense of stability and confidence in society that has been missing in the past years. We need more leaders like Hazel McCallion who exude a sense of confidence from their constituency because they care and they know the real issues that need to be tackled and fought for in the public arena.

There will be leaders in the future. What I pray is that the leaders of the future will be the kind who have conviction and are not afraid to stand on principle and lead Canada into the future with knowledge, integrity, courage and vision.

I Hope Christmas Never Goes Away

After surviving another Christmas rush of buying, wrapping, visiting, and giving how many of you would admit that people go a bit over the deep end this time of year? People are crazy aren't they? Its incredible the lengths that people go to buy that special gift for that special someone. People aren't paying attention when they're driving. They'll park almost anywhere to get into the store or mall. [Been a victim of parallel parking?] Why do people get in such a frenzy? Why does it always happen at Christmas time?

I used to take the frenzy quite personal. I always felt that the budding in line, the fight for a parking spot, the shove in the mall, was a personal offense. Now I look at it a different way. Maybe its because I'm realizing why I get caught up in the frenzy as well. People go over the deep end for someone else! Yes, that's right! They care enough about whoever they're buying for that they will go to exorbitant lengths [way above what is normal any other time of year] to buy that special gift for someone. The more I think about it, the more I hope Christmas never goes away. We all need someone to go over the deep end for us. We need someone to give us that "blowout" gift that we've always wanted but never had enough nerve to spend that kind of money!

I can put up with alot of shoving, budding in line, and apparent rudeness, if I know that someone is doing it for someone else. They're passionate drive to get something special for someone else gives me the assurance that I can take a bit of jostling during the holidays. God knows we all can use such a boost! Everyone deserves someone to go over the deep end for them. If you've been down in the dumps about the chaos of the season, take a note about why people get chaotic and you may just realize that the chaos can be the most beautiful thing: people going crazy for other people.

I hope Christmas never goes away! Its the one time of year that such vivid passion can be seen all in the name of getting something for someone else. Out of an entire year of "getting" that fuels all selfish desires, the point of "getting" this time of year is for someone else.

Well, I've entered the dark side, that place where people fear to tread. It was inevitable. It was only a matter of time. Its one of those things that you can avoid for a while but eventually hits you right between the eyes! There's no escaping it. At one time in my life it felt so far away that it would take forever to get there. Yet, here it is. I'm traveling down a fast waterslide and there is no avoiding the 30 foot drop!

Yes - I'm 40! I have now become one of those people who are fondly referred to as "forty-something!" My kids are no longer in diapers, no longer in car booster seats, in fact one of them is in High School. I look around and I realize I'm not pushing strollers anymore. In fact I'm waiting for my kids at the mall while they go shopping. It hasn't donned on me that I'm not in my 20s anymore. Everyone pushing the strollers look way younger than me. It seems like kids are pushing kids around. WHAT HAPPENED?

In a nutshell, life happened: a roller coaster ride of getting married, having kids, and keeping the team afloat! I'm in the part of my life I always pictured my Dad in and never thought too much about me being there. I'm the Dad now. I'm the middle aged bread winner who trudges off to work at the wee hours of the morning to keep the family going. One thing is for sure: I never expected life to go this fast. Those who are a bit further in the distance tell me that it doesn't slow down one bit. I need to take advice from one of the most reknowned characters in film - In the words of Ferris Beuhler - "Life moves pretty fast. You have to stop and look around sometimes."

Well, I need to make the best of this. As soon as I know it I'll be looking over that big hill and I'll be traveling down the waterslide for the 40 foot drop. No use crying over spilt milk. No point worrying about what happened. There's still too much to do and not enough time to do it in. I better get crackin!

Luc

Food Will Aways Be There

One thing the future will certainly have is food. Some of us may cringe at that because food is a source not only of pleasure but of our ever increasing size. Be that as it may, food has so much to offer. Think of all the ways you can have food. In fact, food contributes to a major part of daily planning. Everything happens in reference to food. Setting up a meeting for instance: do you plan a breakfast meeting or a post breakfast meeting? If you go with the post breakfast, you're not obligated to have a full breakfast but you need to have coffee and water. If you're going to have coffee and water, then you also need to have something there to nibble on, even if its a hard, dry biscotti! What about a lunch meeting? If we're having lunch, will we have it brought in or will we go out? If we go out, where will we go? Know any good lunch spots? After the lunch meeting, most definitely the conversation will be on how good, mediocre or bad the lunch was. I don't think there is ever a meeting attached to food where after the meeting the food is not commented on. From bad food repeating and reminding us to never do that again, to food that was so good, tasty and definitely worth trying again, there will always be some reference to it.

Food will always be there without a doubt. I think of some of the great meals I've had in my life. They have always occured while spending time with family and friends. There is nothing like going out with your spouse and/or friends and enjoying a great meal. It is the source of such pleasure. Good drink and good food joined with good company is a recipe for a great time and great memories! In every culture, good stories get passed on during mealtime. Family gatherings always have food, and it is major catch-up time in terms of stories. First it starts out with our stories about our being single. Then its stories about dating. Then stories about getting married. For sure stories upon stories about our children, I mean how can we not talk about our children And then stories about them being single, going to school, getting married; on and on it goes! Food is the gathering centre.

The more I interact with people, the more I see people getting involved in honing their culinary skills. Why not? If you're going to have food, you might as well learn how to make good food. Good food can be served to good friends and memories happen. So here is a plan. Let's all become amateur chefs. Let's throw chef parties where we get together and learn how to cook; I mean really cook. Imagine what a great place the future will be if you do this. No bad meals ever! Everyone will be capable of serving up the finest cuisine. No one will ever worry about serving up a disasterous meal. We can all wow each other over the great food we can prepare. And the greatest thing about this plan is that we can continue telling our stories and making memories that we cherish forever. I don't know about you, but that is worth repeating!

One Big Happy Family

We don't hear too much about the Global Village these days. Global initiatives are very much alive and well in the business sector but as far as being a part of everyday conversation, we're all a bit leary of talking about our connection to people all over the world. Terrorism is the major topic of the day. It has hit the entire world and we're realizing that no nation is immune to it. Even Canada feels threatened.

Just today I had a conversation with a co-worker about the insurgence of cultures into Canada and how these developing communities are known to house terrorists. In fact, some of the 9/11 terrorists did reside in Canada prior to their heinous act of terrorism on the world symbolized in their attack on the World Trade Centre. Canada, among other places, has become a refuge for people harbouring desire for revenge on the Western World.

When you begin to delve into the issue, you realize that terrorism is birthed and sustained in the religious convictions of people. From my limited understanding on why certain Muslims decide to blow themselves up and take others with them, it seems that the desire is to rid the world of evil. In fact, these militant muslims believe that the Western World has contaminated their culture and their world with evil. Some, if not many, feel that this is a ridiculous premise for such hate and revenge to be poured out on innocent people. But are 2 billion people who make up the muslim world all painted with the same terrorist brush?

The more I understand Muslim culture the more I see that they are people like you and I with families. They go through the same struggle and challenges. They try to sustain their way of living and look to meeting the everyday needs of life. In their families there are parents who care for children, teenagers who struggle with the angst of puberty and adolescence and young adults who seek to carve for themselves a career and a future. There are people who live behind the caricatures that we construct of muslim life and culture. We have to be honest that sometimes, if not all the time, our caricatures are influenced by our media. Its too easy to paint all muslims as militant revengeful terrorists. Its easy to look at someone driving next to you on the highway who looks like they're from a muslim country and label them as a terrorist. But if we are honest, most of the muslim people we know are decent human beings. Yes, they look different, smell different, talk different, worship differently but so did my relatives when they came to Canada from Italy - did that justify a consideration that they were a threat to Canadian society? [don't answer that!]

Muslims have family values that are decent and honourable. If we look at them like people [of which the last time I looked I fell in the category as well] then we need to realize that they are trying to live a good life. In the living of that life, sometimes some of their young people go astray; so do ours! Sometimes in living that life, some of their young adults do heinous things; so do ours! [Paul Bernardo/Karla Homolka] Sometimes in living that life their seasoned people fall to corruption; so do ours! [Enron, Nortel, WorldCom] We've got to stop pointing the finger and saying, "Look at them." Remember; they think that our culture is hurting theirs. Think of our youth culture in particular. Think of MTV. Think of the drug abuse and sexual promiscuity. Think of the deterioration of values and the lack of integrity in the leadership of our country. We feel our own culture is threatening our families. Why are we so surprised that outsiders feel the same way.

The future, if its going to be a promising one, needs us to stop caricaturing and letting media shape our views of others. We've got to be smarter than that. We've got to be more realistic than that. Most prejudice is rooted in a lack of knowledge or misunderstanding. But we live in a society where information is readily available and facts can be determined for certain. Maybe we need to shut the TV off a bit more and do some more reading. Maybe we need to spend some time learning what are truly reliable sources. Maybe we just need to talk to our foreign neighbours more about life in general. After all, they are people, just like you and me.

Wasting Time

There's this great game on the web that is guaranteed to waste at least an hour of your time. You can access it by going to http://www.widro.com/throwpaper.html This is a great game. It has everything the mind needs for some diversion in what may be a very boring day at work. It is shear skill building that isn't beyond any of us. If you can use a keyboard and open a browser you basically have the required skill to learn it. It gives hours of mindless pleasure. The kicker that keeps you not wasting your whole day is the internal ticker that goes off when you've played about 1/2 an hour and the ticker reminds you that you're still at work.

Killing time. It sounds like such a waste of time doesn't it? It's so violent: 'killing.' The term is meant to deter any employee who would possibly venture into the territory of 'killing time' while on the job. It was definitely coined by employers or anyone who is obsessed with tracking their productivity. When you think about it, most employers want employees to be machines. They don't want to hear any complaints, they don't want to hear how overworked and underpaid you are, they just want you to come in and do what they want you to do; end of story. No wonder people are droppin off like flies with stress leave, heart attacks and long term illnesses. The whole point of being human is that we're not machines. In fact, we build machines to do work that as humans we could never do [or a string of workers have been buried over time until someone realized that the work was killing them and decided to invent a machine!].

We need some time out. We need to "chillax." [I heard the term from one of my daughter's friends - it sounded interesting]. Our brains need to vent, let off steam, divert to something totally different. Its inbedded in us. Its the whole song by the chain gang thing. We need things to be fresh and different. The monotony of doing the same thing over and over again wears us down. We weren't made for that. Hammers were made for that. Hammers do only one thing - they hammer. No matter what the context, a hammer is used for hammering. Humans on the other hand are made for creativity. We're made to create things, to change things, to come along side nature and beautify things. We're not machines!! I don't know why employers don't see that. I guess their context doesn't allow them. They're out to lunch for meetings, hooking up with people, doing different things everyday - they don't have time to think about the monontonous treadmill that everyone underneath them treads.

One trend that seems appealing is people who start their own business. These are people who have gained enough experience that they realize they have a commodity that someone wants and its going to be given on their terms. Now, I like that! Maybe this is the trend of all employees. Maybe in the future, employers will need to negotiate contracts with every individual to contract them for what they can offer. Forget about bargaining units and unions. Everyone deals with the employer on their own terms and commits only when they are comfortable with the terms. If it doesn't work out, its not a problem; on to the next client.

Killing time - we need to kill time otherwise we will fry ourselves. Start by clicking on the game at the top. You'll see what I mean.

What is Life all About?

When you look at what's going on around you, you get the feeling that life is random acts of various kinds that are chosen at the whim of everyone out there. Why are people doing what they're doing? Of course the quick answer is that most of us are dragging ourselves out of bed everyday to make sure that we have a roof over our heads and that our kids have food, clothes and enough bling bling so that they aren't ostracized by their friends.

I think alot of us are just doing that very thing - getting up to keep the family going. Its a noble thing really. Our parents did it for us, their parents did it for them and so on. We're perpetuating life. Its too bad that it becomes such a drag. You feel like you're a walking machine heading out to the rock pile to chip a small bit out of a giant mountain. You come home, you eat, you chat a bit, help the kids with their homework, sit down for an hour to watch something on the boob tube and then go to bed only to start it all over again.

I'm thinking there are people ready to go "postal" because their life is such a constant routine - like a monkey bite - same thing every day. I've got an idea. If we've got to keep things going for those around us why don't we do something different? Why not start small. Change your route to work in the morning. Get a change of scenary. Now that might be more stressful than helpful because you may be panicking not knowing whether the new route will get you to work on time. If you can get past that stress point, try it! Maybe cut down a different street to see if its faster.

Here's another one: when you get to work in the morning, talk to someone you don't usually talk to. There are a myriad of people you pass everyday. Stop and talk to one of them. Start out slow. You don't want to freake them out. Just say "Hi" the first day. Then the next day say, "Hi - how ya doin!" Do that for a week. Then on the Monday after the weekend when you pass them ask them, "How was your weekend?" You never know. You may just happen to get to know someone that you may never have known because the routine kept you from knowing them.

Here's what I'm thinking. If the the future is going to be different, then we've got to plan for something different. Life is about people and there are a lot of them out there. If you get past the insecurity of "what will they think if I say hi?" - "What if they're a psycho and I get stalked for the rest of my life?" - then risking a little change now may help us in taking bigger risks in the future. You never know until you try. Give it a try. You just may break up a routine that if unbroken will plunge you into a life of endless boredom.

LL