Category: Samuel

Today I read a very simple request.  It came from a 5 year old boy who has terminal cancer.  His birthday is coming up on July 25th, and all he wanted was to get a letter in the mail.  You see when he initially got sick, a bunch of friends/family sent him get well soon cards.  When he got these cards his mother was really struck by how much he enjoyed seeing his name on all of the envelops.  So she told this story to her local news station and they ran a small story about the boy, asking viewers if they would write in to a P.O. Box where the mother could pick up letters and give them to her son.

I’m not sure exactly what struck me so much about this story, but upon reading it, it was all I could do to hold back tears.  I think I was really struck by the simple request, and probably more so by the simple joys of a small child.  I could really picture him running to the door to greet his mother who was carrying a huge pile of cards for him to read.  I could also really picture the gratitude that the mother would surely have, being able to make her son so happy.  I’ve written more about Simple Joys before, to me it really is the key to life.  To not take yourself too seriously, slow down and just appreciate how amazing life is.

Anyway my friends and I went out, purchased 3 cards and all wrote a simple happy birthday note to the Kid. His name is Danny.  It felt really good to do, and while I was mailing the card I realized it was probably one of the funnest things that I have done all year.  If you have a second I encourage you to mail a letter to Danny.

Danny Nickerson

P.O. Box 212 Foxboro, MA, 02035

I recently read a funny challenge on one of my favorite blogs (life listed by Danny Dover).  The challenge was actually a set of small items to complete in 1 month, and 1 of the items (stare at a stranger in public until they smile back at you sounded like it would be a lot of fun).  I also thought it would be pretty easy because I smile at people and they smile back all the time. Well my first attempt at doing this challenge didn’t go very well.

Attempt 1. I’m in line at the grocery store and see this lady with 2 kids behind me. She looks to be in a pretty bad mood, and the 2 hellions that she appears to be raising or at least purchasing food for look like a total nightmare (watching the entire scene I remember thinking to myself, man I am glad I don’t have any kids lol).  So anyway I thought you know this lady could use a smile, now is a good time to try this stranger challenge. So I attempt to catch eye contact with her for 30 seconds or so…. fail. She is just watching these kids and telling them to settle down.  Ok I need to step up my game and get her attention. She has her cart placed in between me and the rack of snacks that they have just before you check out… you know all the bad stuff you shouldn’t eat but they force tempt you with right before you leave.  So what I decide to go with is I will ask her to hand me some gum, give her a big smile and she will be forced to smile back at my pearly whites…. all that ends up really happening is she (slightly annoyed) hands me a pack of gum (which I didn’t even really want) and I now am checking out with an unwanted pack of gum, and the laborious task of grabbing the gum has clearly annoyed stranger lady even more…. by this point I’m starting to get my items rung up by the cashier so I don’t have much more time left…. never one to bow to fate I decide that I will do a last ditch effort to just stare at her smiling while the cashier rings all my food up…. the end result of this smile blitzkrieg is that the cashier finally taps me on the shoulder and asks me to please swipe my credit card…. so now I have 1 extra pack of gum, 1 slightly more annoyed lady, and 1 slightly annoying cashier…. I decide its best to cut my losses and try this whole make a random stranger smile some other time.