Everything You Do Has a Ripple Effect

Dear Residents of Chatsworth,

How would you like to be known as a resident of the nicest community in the San Fernando Valley?  Los Angeles?  Maybe even California?

How would you like for your community -- the community of Chatsworth -- to be known as the warmest, kindest, most friendly place around?

What if I told you that you could make that happen?  That you, dear reader, could bring that about?  Well, I think you can.  How? 

Well, I'd like to propose a little experiment and I want every Chatsworth resident to participate.

Now, I believe that the actions of a  human being have a ripple effect on those around us.  What do I mean by that?   If you yell at your wife and she goes to her job as a grocery store clerk and snarls at the sleep-deprived mother of three working full-time running in to pick up some Hamburger Helper and a rotisserie chicken while worried sick about her husband losing his job and the working mom then goes home and yells at the kids and one kid goes and flips off the dad and the dad rushes out and snarls at the guy in the next car and the guy in the next car speeds and gets into an accident, well, you've added to the anger and frustration that is already out there and just made things worse, sometimes a lot worse.

But if you smile at someone and take a moment to be kind, that little act of a smile can make a person who is having a hard day feel better.  Then they go out and smile at somebody else and that person is nicer and kinder.  It all ripples out into Chatsworth and the San Fernando Valley and the world at large.  Or so they say.  Maybe, maybe not.  But since you live or work in Chatsworth, you get to personally be a part of finding out.

That is the Chatsworth Challenge!

So here's what I'm asking you to do.  Every week, I'm going to give you a different challenge, something that will challenge you to do things you normally might not do. And what I'm asking you to do, to indulge me, is try for a week, to live up to the challenge that I issue to you.  And look around you and notice, are we able to make a change in Chatsworth for everyone?

It's nothing less than a communal experiment in positive thinking.

And by the way, I want to know the results of your Chatsworth Challenge.  Did you manage to put into effect the challenge and do very well until your dog threw up on your new shoes?  Did you manage to smile and be kind to everyone you saw until the dishwasher and refrigerator broke on the exact same day, when you can't afford to fix them and you've only had five hours of sleep?  Do you wish you even had a dishwasher?  Let me know about it.  Did the Chatsworth Challenge change your life or help a friend?  I want to know the good and the bad.  And other Chatsworth residents will want to know too (I hope).

Okay.  Are you ready for this week's challenge?

Sorry, I've run out of space.  But get ready because I'm going to issue you the first Chatsworth Challenge next time.  Are you ready?  Are you with me?  Are you going to make me look like a fool for suggesting this and maybe be out of a job because my editor thinks it's not going to work?  Nah, that's not the attitude of a Chatsworth resident.  Chatsworth residents are made of different stuff than the rest of the San Fernando Valley.