Why Keen?

I was attending my sister’s convocation ceremony with my parents last week, and was wondering about something we noticed. As each member of graduant’s names are called, only about a handful of the audience, fellow graduants included, were clapping to cheer them on.

Probably only the handful of relatives, as well as friends among the audience who recognized him/her contributed to the “resounding applause”.

How sad is that?

One family sitting in front of us were so adamant about lending no one a hand that they sat through the whole hour, wide awake, mind you, without their hands leaving their armpits, not even for their son/daughter on stage? (Maybe they were cold? It was a little chilly in the hall. And ten points to my dear mother for taking notice!)

Hey, here’s an idea! Maybe someone can design a system that would install an applause ring tone to all phones in the hall, so that if someone’s phone rings, it would be that of the sound of applause?

Good manners aside, I was just wondering if there was any reason anyone could bring up to appeal to these folks.

What I know of is this…

• If you open your heart to cheer for another’s achievements, you will be that much happier with your own.

• If you allow yourself to be happy for someone, you are programming your brain to be more receptive to happiness.

Well, the opposite of this is not to let other’s lack of cheer make you unhappy. So those ten points I gave my mom? I take them back, because we shouldn’t vest too much interest in other’s lack of happiness. It really cramps our own style!