kindness

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November 21, 2009

People all over the world, join hands.

Posted by Grendel's Mother under God, kindness, Love, marketing
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I have a topic today that’s really kind of an amalgam of several observations that come together in a theme. It’s what I like to do—see patterns and try to make sense of them. So the other day I saw the latest Gap commercial on TV and I thought back to my grad school days when I (and my group) wrote a paper and gave a presentation on the GAP commercials for our advertising class. I really do love seeing the new commercials GAP comes up with each year. They are so creative and fun and I think they do a fantastic job of creating positive awareness of the brand. And I’m sure they have helped increase revenue.

This year’s commercial is about cheer—and the commercial is kind of like a cheerleading song and dance. There have been a few favorites over the years. I loved the Gap Khaki Country and the one that initiated a revival of swing dancing. But I think my favorite is the one that uses the Love Train song. You can see the commercial below.

So the Love Train thing led me to think about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. My friend posted a challenge on Facebook which I then forwarded to my friends whom I am sure forwarded on to their friends. The challenge was to update your status every day with something you are thankful for. It’s a beautiful way to live, really. It’s easy to get caught up in misery or the stressful parts of our life, especially now. To make it a point to think about the wonderful gifts God gives us and to praise Him for it makes you think about how good our lives are.

This also got me thinking about how wonderful these social media sites are and how much good we can accomplish through them. We can spread positive messages, help people in need, educate people about important issues, and share our love for each other all through the social media love trains.

See, I told you I was going to pull a bunch of things out of the air and come up with a theme. Spreading love, gratitude, happiness, and goodwill. That’s a pretty good theme. Today I am thankful that all of you are reading this and that I can voice my opinion without the fear of oppression.

 

 

 

May 30, 2009

How do I judge thee? Let me count the ways.

Posted by Grendel's Mother under kindness, manners, Uncategorized
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Ahhhhhh Spring. Millions of students are in the process of finishing up the year with finals. Those stress-filled tests that are designed to hold students accountable and to sort them from smart to not as smart. This is human nature folks. Let’s see how we measure up against one another.

Another way we judge people is by the TV shows they watch. My inspiration for this post came from the show Greek. Judge me if you will, but I like it. One of the characters, Dale, is a science genius and a conservative Christian. So he is your basic geek (yes, that’s a judgment). When the show started, he was against the Greek system and had pretty strong views about homosexuality. Over the course of two seasons, he hasn’t compromised his beliefs but he hasn’t turned away from or unfairly judged people who are in the Greek system or who are gay. Two of his best friends fall into those categories. So it is possible to keep your principles without judging others too harshly.

In the last episode Dale was upset that his art history teacher was going to have essay questions on the midterm exam. When Dale heard this his response was, “Essays? No, no. That leaves way too much room for teacher interpretation and frankly this guy’s kind of a nut bag.” That’s right Dale. Teacher gets to subjectively judge you. And to all you students out there—that’s life. Sometimes you get nut bags and sometimes you get lifelong mentors.

But hey, it’s good practice. Because for the rest of your life you’ll be judged on all sorts of things. For example, what you find funny, what you like to watch on TV, what you do for a living, what kind of car you drive, your opinions, and very relevant to my current life—your resume. You really shouldn’t worry about any of that though. What you should focus on is how you treat others. Do you judge people unfairly? While you are pondering that thought, take a look at this picture of me in third grade. If I was judged harshly based on my clothes, I would not have made many friends. (By the way Mom, thanks for letting me out of the house looking like this.) The girl next to me happens to be one of my friends, even after all these years. I’m taller than her now but she always had better fashion sense and never cared if I wore ugly shoes. Show the love people and good luck on those exams, applications, interviews, and first dates.

Chadds_Ford_elementary_3rd_grade

 

May 18, 2009

How can I not help you today?

Posted by Grendel's Mother under kindness, manners, marketing
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There are certain things at which I excel. Meeting deadlines, being organized, and sending cards are just a few. And there are things at which I stink. I like to think of the stinky ones as things I just haven’t practiced enough yet. Mostly because they are boring and I don’t like them. (The truth is the reason I probably don’t like them is because I stink at them.) It’s a vicious cycle really. One of those things that I dislike doing is maintenance. Calling repair people, fixing things, etc. So imagine how happy I’ve been the last couple of weeks fixing up my beach house so we can rent it out to pay the bills. (Oh and the nasty letter I got from my VA HOA saying I need to repair my steps.) Oh joy, oh joy, oh joy.

Today I had a fan-dang-tastic conversation with a woman from the company that is providing our house with wireless Internet access. Not only had we already been through the exercise of setting up the account a week ago but English was not her native tongue. That didn’t bother me so much. Some people get pretty upset asking customer service reps to repeat themselves every other sentence, but that was the least of my annoyance with this call. I won’t go into details—let’s just say that some things never change.

Customer service should be King, but alas it’s not. What do you do when you are treated poorly by a company? With the possible exception of the post office—that evil government organization that doesn’t seem to have to answer to anyone for some reason—we could make a conscience effort to take our business elsewhere. Laziness sometimes intervenes in those plans but I can be stubborn, so all you companies out there who are getting my business—take note! Not that it would matter. They would probably just get a bail-out package and take a vacation to the Caribbean. In any case, wish me luck—I’ve got to order and install a dishwasher tomorrow. (The one that was supposed to be here a week ago.)

I know this is supposed to be a fun blog, so I apologize for the rant. There is one more thing I need some help clarifying though. Why is it that when I order McNuggets at McDonalds they always give me four, six, or ten orders of those $1 boxes? When I ask for six McNuggets, I don’t mean six orders of the four McNugget packages. I honestly don’t get why it’s so hard to understand that.

Now it’s your turn. What’s your favorite customer service story?

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