Posts Tagged With: smile

John Quiñones, an ABC News correspondent, hosts the show “What Would You Do?”. He and his team of camera operators and professional, yet unknown, actors and actresses present what they call “Social Experiments” and film the reactions of the general public when presented with unethical and uncomfortable (or downright dangerous) situations. Here I am sharing two incredibly moving segments, each just a few minutes long, to help me in expressing the message of doing the right thing.

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Homelessness (Linda Hamilton) – It may be filmed in Newark, New Jersey but it’s a pretty good snapshot of all big cities. While just over 7 minutes, it is especially at the 4 and a half minute mark that it strongly pulls at my heart strings and fills me with hope and encouragement that angels truly do come in all sizes, colors, ages, clothing – you name it!

Add to that the fact that the (real life) heroine’s name is the same as the actress who I am a fan of, for playing the heroine in the first Terminator movies, as well as the late 80’s Beauty and the Beast TV series. Also she starred in a lovely TV movie called Home By Christmas about a down-on-her-luck divorcée who becomes homeless through a series of rather realistic misfortunes and has to re-build her life.

This video may introduce to us a very different woman with the same name, but she is as powerful to my heart as any hero I’ve ever seen in this must-watch video. 7:27 minutes.

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Lost Child – This segment is incredibly powerful and I feel it is important to pass along. Please note, there are essential pointers to remember when presented with a lost child and the first important step is to NOT move the child. You must never encourage a child to leave with you. You stay with them and call the police for help. If you don’t have a cell, you ask someone else, a passerby if needed, to call for help. You wait with the child and reassure them that you will help find the parent they’ve become separated from.

Those rules being said, please do help!  I was a lost child at a fair once, and the memory of the kind woman who helped me still brings tears to my eyes. She was like an angel to help reunite a lost child with her worried mother. A few minutes of your time can make an incredible impact of good in someone’s world.

A wonderful quote attributed (possibly falsely) to Abraham Lincoln is: “No man stands so tall as when he stoops to help a child.”  He was an amazing man and, regardless of who coined this phrase, these are wise words. Their wisdom goes beyond assisting only children, for indeed we never stand so tall as when we stoop to help anyone.

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Regarding the kindness, or blindness, of strangers, may each of us choose to be like an angel on earth. Let’s all make the decision to offer to help with every opportunity that we are presented with. Every urge we have to share a polite compliment, or offer a smile, or a hand to someone reaching for something too high for them, listen to that urge! That is our Highest part of Self calling to us, our Large Self as my friend Cathy Ulrich writes and teaches about. Our small self hurries past and ignores those chances to help. Our large Self however calls out to our heart and intuition, our gut-reaction, urging us to reach out and help our fellow man. Let’s all endeavor to listen to those highest callings and help whenever we can. It will make you feel better. And it just might save someone’s day. Or even their life.