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Health & Fitness

You will not believe what happened since the last post...

A childhood friend's popular blog making headlines...for good reason and tragedy of Leiby Kletzky's murder.

So you'll never guess what happened since my last blog post.

A friend of mine read the previous blog and messaged me on Facebook. She liked the idea that strangers are really just potential friends, but what she found even more amazing was that a friend from my childhood, Gemma Seltzer was blogging about strangers too!

It turns out that Gemma's blog became so popular that she turned it into a book. The name of her blog (and successively her book) is: "Speak to Strangers." The premise for her blog was to meet 100 strangers in the city of London in 100 days and to write each day, a 100 word essay encapsulating what she took away from the planned “chance” encounter.

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I loved reading through her blog and thought how brilliant Gemma's idea was. I'm sure she had to overcome that natural reservation that most of us have when in the company of strangers. The avoidance of eye contact or the sudden need to do something very important on your iPhone or check you emails or missed calls rather than feeling the obligation to offer a polite smile or a muffled "hi." What are we afraid of?

We can gain so much from introducing ourselves to a stranger and making that first step in starting a conversation.

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Thank you Gemma for sharing your 100 days with the world. I'm sure that your blog’s popularity is fueled by your readers’ innate interest in other people, a natural human feature that we all share.

At the end of the day, especially in communities like ours here in the beautiful Palisades, we have to be community focused and notice one another and be prepared to protect and support each other as good communities do.

Post Script:

In light of the recent tragedy in Brooklyn, New York with the murder of Leiby Kletzky, a sweet and innocent soul of only 8 years old, it is fitting to reinforce the importance of training our children and students in the proper awareness necessary when interacting with strangers. Leiby's parents, in the most inspiring statement have encouraged sympathizes to please increase in their "mitzvah" acts of goodness and kindness. They have not lost their faith in the creator or in humankind.
May we take inspiration from them and as a community send them our blessings and pledges to increase in our goodness towards others.

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