About a week ago, I posted Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s wonderful video, The Beckoning of Lovely, in which Amy, along with hundreds of people who accepted her You Tube invitation to create something cool together, did just that. In fact they made 12 cool things.
After watching The Beckoning of Lovely, I was inspired. I decided to create the same 12 cool things myself, and share them here on Zebra Sounds every Monday. I posted the first, Make A Grand Entrance, last Monday. Today it’s time for the second… Make A Friend.
Making a friend is harder than you might think. In the video, Amy says “Make a friend,” and everyone turns to hug the people closest to them. In real life, hugging strangers is awkward and maybe even dangerous. Generally speaking, people aren’t ready for spontaneous affection from someone who just happens to be standing near them. In real life, there’s a bit of an art to turning strangers into friends, and it doesn’t come easily to those of us who have a tendency to become tongue-tied around people we don’t know. Especially (and inexplicably) around interesting people we don’t know.
Still, I think my week of trying to make friends has been a success. First, I volunteered to participate in three upcoming literary events. All will involve me meeting strangers, working and playing with them. Making friends. Also, last night, I attended an amazing play in which a friend of mine performed. Afterward I was invited to the cast party. Quelling the bit of panic that the word “party” evokes in me, I went, and instead of parking myself in a corner, I smiled, I hugged some people, I asked questions. I met the director, two of the actors, a cellist, a writer, a librarian married to a concert flutist. I made friends.
I didn’t catch it on film, though, so I have one more success story to share, because sometimes making a friend comes from seizing an opportunity you didn’t know you’d have. My unexpected opportunity happened at the amusement park, in route from The Demon roller coaster to The Vortex. Right there in the middle of everything, surrounded by people half my size, was someone I was very excited to meet!
SpongeBob is adorable, but is it me, or does squidward look like a cartoony lech?
Up next… Make Something Pretty. Can’t wait to show you my pretty something next Monday.
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And now for something not very different at all… The world needs more hugs.
