Crew 52 and a Big Smile

Beginning yesterday there have been scores of folks wearing blue (It’s not really “blue” but I don’t know if it’s turquoise or what shade of blue it is so I’m going with blue because it looks like blue to me!) shirts and jackets all over downtown Minneapolis. They’re actually all over the metro area but I’ve only seen them downtown and they’re part of “Crew 52” which is the large group of volunteers helping visitors to the Twin Cities find their way around.

I’ve only seen them in the skyways downtown and they’re everywhere and what I love about them is they smile at everyone. Just look at a “Crew 52” volunteer and they smile, it’s that simple! And they do it for no other reason than to be nice. And even better than that, they make me feel good. It’s kind of like how when you’re waiting in line somewhere and the person in front of you has a little kid with you and when you make a face and smile the kid smiles back. The “Crew 52” folks smile and like that little kid you can’t help but smile back.

One of the reasons this makes me so happy is because not many people smile in public for no reason anymore and certainly hardly ever to strangers walking in the skyways. So seeing a smile at any point during a regular day is rare and I think that’s sad. But for the last two days while walking through the skyways I’ve had people I’ve never seen before, and will more than likely never see again, smile to me. And while I’m not overly excited about the prospect of 150,000 people dropping down onto the city in the next couple of days, I’m happy they’re coming because without then we wouldn’t have the “Crew 52” people and their random smiles. Personally, after the Super Bowl is over, I think the city should hire a group of people to just hang out and smile at other people. Then that person will go and smile at someone else and then that someone else will go and smile at someone else and before you know it, a bunch of someone else’s are smiling at other someone else’s and everyone forgets to be mad and upset at whatever might have been making them mad and upset. I don’t think that’s too much to ask, how about you?