Stadtleben: How you don't let it crush your soul of it
Stadtleben: How you don't let it crush your soul of it
While our travel year goes to his last month, my nerves tremble during the idea of returning to city life. My hometown is a big, spacious jungle ...
When our travel year goes into the last month, my nerves tremble at the thought of returning to London. My hometown is a large, spacious concrete jungle with a few manners.
ask me to describe a scenario that is typical of Samoa, for example, and I would tell you how Samoan constantly swap the seats and reorganize yourself in buses to ensure that as many people as possible have a seat and usually even offer their own rounds (see No. 4 of 5 surprising facts about Samoa).
ask me a similar question about London, and I would probably tell you about the time when I watched a man to stubborn down the stairs at the Oxford Circus underground station. He fell forward and landed upside down, his head on the floor, his legs still spread over the stairs. He had glassy eyes and had lost a shoe.
everyone around me froze for a second to try to decide whether he was clumsy or drunk, and wondered whether they should help him or ignore him. We all opted for the latter and carefully looked for a way around him.
When I passed, I heard him say "sorry", his voice clear and embarrassed. At that moment I hated that I hadn't tried to help him or calm him down. Large cities are stunned for other people: their problems, their pain, their mere presence.
Maybe it is necessary as a survival tactic. Perhaps it is simply not possible to take care of eight million people if they all struggle for space in a suffocating city, but there are small things that we can do to make life easier for us and our fellow human beings.
1. Stop to fight time fragments
In me, a special anger is bubbling when I stand behind someone who treats the rush hour like a Sunday walk - in the middle of the stairwell. Sometimes I am angry because I have to arrive where I want to go. Other times it is simply out of habit.
Of course, racing around brings us only tiny fragments: seconds, maybe minutes, if we are lucky. Think of all the time you spend in boring meetings or in front of the television or on Facebook or Twitter. Nobody likes long commuting paths, but how about if you give up Facebook instead of popping down the people to win back some time?
2. Be aware of the freedom of others
That means legs and elbows within the limits of their seat. This means that you don't push your newspaper, your phone or Kindle directly in the face.
It means not relying on a bar where people can hold on. It means not to push the person in front of it when getting on a train - or get in before everyone got out. It means going down the damn course. It means lifting your garbage. It means not blowing any carcinogenic smoke in the face. It means not to scream on your phone or play your music too loudly. It means not to jump into the queue.
It means being aware that people are around you.
3. Give your barista, magazine dealer or her waiter your full attention
alt = “How to save for travel”> manners are standard in small towns and villages. Why is city life so different?
City life is very busy and I understand the need for multitasking, but telephone calls should really be done before you get to the head of a queue. If you talk to someone who serves you, you have the decency to put your phone away. Look in your eyes and talk to you.
You are not part of a faceless mass that just acts according to your wishes. They are not the invisible tissue that holds our cities together. They are humans and earn our attention.
4. Say thanks
It was Peter who was the first to open my eyes to how rude Londoners can be. He comes from a small town where people thank you when you stop to leave them in a supermarket course or to stop them - which of course means that big cities drive him crazy. As a native of London, I didn't even notice this behavior until I was expressly pointed out. And now I'm constantly notice. A thank you does not cost anything, so offer one back the next time someone proves a courtesy.
5. Take a flyer
come, we all know that distributing flyers in the icy cold must be a soul -closer undertaking. Just take what is offered to you, smile and thank you. Take it and read it, or take it and recycle it, or take it and throw it away. Just make life a little easier on this day.
6. Always wear headphones
Sometimes (well, mostly), your appreciation for others will not be reflected to you. One of the most effective ways to prevent people from hating people is to have headphones and music within reach. This may not actively make your city a better place, but it will make it more bearable for you.
7. Do not make guesswork about humans
Do you know the girl with the head-to-foot hijab? Do you see the Louboutins under their informal black cloak or piercing in your left nipple? What about the guy with the tie? Has to be a city gun, isn't it?
Well, actually he was at the Peace Corps and works every two weeks in a homeless shelter - he just dressed up for a funeral. Large cities are full of archetypes, but that does not mean that people are informal blobs with predetermined properties. I learned - partly through surprising experiences, partly through hard lessons - not to stamp people because of their appearance or their name.
We all had a better feeling for the people around us if we would see them as individuals and not as representations.
8. Finally ... if someone falls over, ask if he is doing well
seriously. It is simply not acceptable to exceed someone and go their happy way. If someone falls or obviously needs help, they offer their help. The bytander effect suggests that the more people are present in a situation, the less likely they will help because they assume that someone else will do it. Be this person.
"very British problem" by Rob Temple is a hilarious insight into the British psyche, which shows how we are a nation of socially awkward but well -meaning spinners that fight every day to survive it without apologizing in a lifeless object.
Mission statement: Dreamstime
.