Attitude Is Everything – You Get To Choose

Let me introduce you to Carl Sandburg’s Kansas Sodbuster:

He leaned at the gatepost and studied the horizon and figured what corn might do next year and tried to calculate why God ever made the grasshopper and why two days of hot winds smother the life out of a stand of wheat and why there was such a spread between what he got for grain and the price quoted in Chicago and New York. 

Drove up a newcomer in a covered wagon: “What kind of folks live around here?” 

“Well, stranger, what kind of folks was there in the country you come from?” 

“Well, they was mostly a lowdown, lying, thieving, gossiping, back-biting lot of people.” 

“Well, I guess, stranger, that’s about the kind of folks you’ll find around here.” 

And the dusty gray stranger had just about blended into the dusty gray cottonwoods in a clump on the horizon when another newcomer drove up: “What kind of folks live around here?” 

“Well, stranger, what kind of folks was there in the country you come from?” 

“Well, they was mostly a decent, hard-working, law-abiding, friendly lot of people.” 

“Well, I guess, stranger, that’s about the kind of folks you’ll find around here.” 

And the second wagon moved off and blended with the dusty gray cottonwoods on the horizon while the early sodbuster leaned at his gatepost and tried to figure out why two days of hot winds smother the life out of a nice stand of wheat.

I love this story. It perfectly illustrates how your attitude and expectations determine your view of the world and your experiences in it. The sodbuster gave each stranger a different response even though he talked about the same “folks around here.” And the sodbuster was right.

I had an aunt who would always complain that there were no friendly people in Las Vegas, and for her, there weren’t. That was more a reflection of her than anything else.

When Philip and I are out and about, we see no shortage of friendly people and make friends wherever we go. We make a trip to the grocery store fun simply by interacting with each other and the people around us. It’s not hard to meet friendly people. Start with a smile and see where it goes from there. You have the power to influence, even control, your experience with people.

Not happy with what you’ve got? Try changing your thinking and the way you interact with people. Truthfully, you’ll run into a few people with whom you’ll never have a great experience. Don’t let the few change your intention to see the best in people, enjoy them, and even make friends. You control the experience and decide if there are friendly people to meet.

If you’re a woman 59+, you can meet a whole bunch of friendly women in our Facebook group: Your Encore is Now, and join us on the first Friday of every month for Kitchen Table Conversations.

Sign up for First Friday’s HERE. If you’re interested in hearing more, let me know by email (or Facebook messenger).