The thing about people...

One of my underlying philosophies abut people is: everyone wants to be happy. Everyone wants to have love and companionship, some level of comfort and the feeling of security, a sense of purpose. But most of all, everyone simply wants to be happy. I do and I am most certain that you do too. So why do so many people work so hard to destroy others' sense of happiness. Not everyone of course, but far too many. But perhaps even worse, why do we do the things we do that impair our own feelings of well-being and happiness?

So here's where I say forget everything you ever thought (stereotyped) about people from New York. While there on my layover before coming to Russia, I was a newbie in the Big Apple trying to feel my way around -- as well as how to get around! Every single person I came into contact with was really super nice and very helpful.

"Excuse me, am I headed the right direction to get to Central Park?" Or, when I was staring blankly at the signs in the subway trying to figure out if I was about to head in the right direction back to JFK, people, every on of them, where helpful and -- well let's just say it: Kind.

Thank you!

Thinking about it these days, people actually have to make the conscious decision to be helpful versus scornful. I don't think that rudeness is a natural state for our mere human condition. I think we are all born with an innate sense of joy and sharing that is one of the things that helps us to be happy.

I would have to say that my first real cultural experience for Russia on this trip started on the flight to Moscow. It was evident that the Americans onboard the plane were very small in number. During the initial announcement by the flight crew, the speaker clearly articulated that the flight crew was able to fluently speak five different languages (English, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish & German). Or in their words, "We are able to help you in any way we can" and hence; we'll do our very best to communicate with you. Right there, on this plane, it was a small world: People traveling for business, people traveling for pleasure or vacation, and some people traveling out of tragedy. And as articulated by the flight crew, the ability to communicate with us was at the essence of them being able to help us to, to fulfill our needs, to make our journey ever so more comfortable and happy.

A short while after take off, I struck up a conversation with a Russian man sitting across the isle from me. I say Russian and he would probably be telling this story calling me an American but really, aren't those just labels? With my broken Russian and his broken English we were able to learn a great deal about each other. He and his daughter were headed back home after having to travel to the states to attend her fiancé's funeral. Her future husband, an American, a former marine, and an engineer, died in a motorcycle accident. There I was with no way to artfully communicate the sadness I felt for their loss.

As it turns out, he had been to Arizona to study at a John Deere facility. Now he is the general manager for an energy technical service company that conducts energy audits for buildings. He was fascinated to learn about my energy efficient straw bale home run completely by solar and wind power. It is a small world.

I guess much like my experience in New York City, I will be very interested in observing how people interact with each other here in Russia. In this world of cynicism, short tempers and distrust, how will simple acts of kindness emerge? How can we all be a part of each others' happiness? Learning to break down the barriers that divide us -- to be willing to unlearn the things we have inside of us that hinder our ability to really see the world and our fellow human beings -- is a good start. Then we can finally begin to truly communicate, to engage in our own and others' happiness.