Believing in good people

Make it a priority to get the best out of others. ”~ Zig Ziglar

One of the most exciting parts of writing about happiness is having the opportunity to connect with people who make sharing fun a priority.

If you want it, you will find good people everywhere - in your office, in the morning, in the blogs you follow, and in the midst of your Twitter feed. They will not be the only person you see; there are a lot of people out there who go around holding on to great hardships, and they spread it knowingly or unknowingly.

But a constructive person - a person who believes in the good of people - sheds light on what we all have within us to be hopeful, believing, and encouraging. Light enough to give a different impression to those other people who seem so wrong. Suddenly, judgment and fear melt into understanding and empathy.

That is what the Happiness Project is all about: making happiness a reality for all.

Their main goal is to provide students with the tools and wisdom, based on constructive psychology and neuro-science research, to create real happiness. They work with children of all ages, empowering them to feel good about themselves so that they can cope with life's challenges.

When Rolando Sandor sent me an email with an invitation to attend the Project Happiness Cirque de Happiness event this Saturday, I was not too happy. Honestly, I knew nothing about nonprofits; I just knew that the “Cirque de” or anything else had to be a fun, wonderful event.

I was right. I arrived alone, without hesitation. It was a fun-filled fundraiser. It would be nice to have a joke if people weren’t closed and unfriendly.

The first thing I noticed was a woman wearing a white feather wig and wearing a wooden dress. My troublemaker stood behind him for a moment, so I could catch him if he fell. (Because the theater makes me so happy I forget I am a 5'2 woman, not an amazing Hulk). Fortunately, he kept his balance.

Later that evening, after a successful auction, he joined other artists dressed in stage colors for air dancing.

By that time, I had already made some new friends at my desk: Rolando's boyfriend, his friend, his future mother-in-law, and a Google employee named Dan. Everyone was friendly and open, offering a kind of unwavering welcome that makes you feel comfortable being yourself.

It was a lovely symmetrical color in the evening messages - mostly, one story Rolando's colleague shared during the night.

While working with a class of students, he had instructed them to create two independent images: one expressing itself the way others see it, the other, as we see ourselves.

As he walked along, he saw a little girl drawing a picture of what appeared to be trash. The girl described how people saw it: like a huge pile of rubbish. But in his own version, he was a walking stick to help someone get up.

"They don't see it, but I know I'm a good person," he explained.

On the other hand, it was good that this little girl believed in the good in her, but nonetheless, my heart sank a little.

I don't know what struck me the most: the sadness that a person, let alone a child, can believe that he looks insignificant in the eyes of other people, or the fact that often our response to people we do not understand exacerbates their fears about our ideas.

It happens all the time - I know; I've been on both ends of that stick.

He sees someone who seems angry, so he decides what kind of person he is. Even if you see someone who is self-sacrificing or insecure in public, then you continue instead to be friendly and give him the courage to open up.

We live in a world that is not always peaceful. We live in a world that is geared toward appealing to fleshly inclinations. Fearful people; people who threaten others with harmful things they do too