It's Nice To Be Nice

I wonder how readers would describe the tone of my writing. It might be said that couched in the eloquent, formal language that has my work rated at a middle school reading level is an irascible, bad-tempered quality. This general churlishness is at odds with my desires and best intentions. I'd like nothing more than to be entirely sunshine and rainbows. The closest I come to that is when I get very silly, and often my niceness isn't expressed in words because I'm recklessly dancing at the time. Let it never be said, however, that I don't appreciate the value of being nice. It's just that like fixing cars, I don't know very well how.

Smiling a lot helps. Someone who smiles by default is a long way towards being nice. I don't really do that. Smiling comes only if called out by something rather funny. It's something to work on as a performer, I guess. I suppose I look better to others when smiling, but when I smile in a mirror, all I see are the countless lines it makes in my face. Maybe it sounds silly, but I'm as concerned about getting older as anyone, and I don't like seeing those lines. I won't be getting operated on for them, but I don't like them. Not smiling makes the lines stay away. That's not a factor in my not smiling, but it is a plus. I guess I just have to trust in the value of smiling and hope that enough things come around to provoke it in me.

Saying nice things is big. I do my best at that, but it's not incredibly easy all the time. How often do I do it? As much as I can, I'll say that. A prerequisite that helps out a lot is to think nice things. It seems that often the nice things I think wind up suppressed in favor of something else. Other times I have nothing very nice in my mind. I can persuade people of things that are factually untrue with a deadpan delivery, but I don't think I'm very convincing when attempting the same thing with things that are emotionally untrue. My best option frequently is to stick with stony silence. Hopefully it's mistaken often for nice silence. As they say, "If you can't say something nice...", and I try to take that to heart. Silence often pays off big, and not just in this context.

Doing nice things seems to happen most often. I'm always glad to pitch in where charity is concerned, or where friends and family are in need. Money is perennially in too short of supply, but my labor and knowledge are always at the disposal of those who need it. Maybe I come out in this as a not so nice person, but I do have as a saving grace my aspirations to always become nicer and better. It's what separates humans from animals, I do believe- even me.