"the friendly club"

Well I just read a very interesting thing, of course I can read or how else could I write!!!! Dogs read all sorts of things, like signs telling people to Beware of Us and On Leash and Off Leash signs and....well you get the picture. Anyway in this weeks People magazine, the one with Justin Bieber on the cover (I know I can't explain that either), there was something interesting that caught my eye. In an article about Carol Burnett, apart from noticing that she married a man 20 years younger than her at 60, there was a caption under a photo of her and John Belushi (who used to live at Chateau Marmont, where we lived when we first got here to LA) they talked about "the friendly club" which was started by her and Charles Grodin and was about being friendly to people, smiling, letting them know you know they exist. John said 'It's a great idea; i'm starting to do it now.'
Well it suddenly occurred to me that we should all do it. I know that when I have received some nice compliments lately, that they made me feel so good and happy, and that's an extension of friendliness. How about we all smile and say hello, and where appropriate, or even not appropriate, give a compliment for free. If we all did that a bit more I think we could exponentially cheer the world up. And how great would that feel.
I think it's another great key to being happy, making other people happy, and what better way than to make them feel good about themselves and acknowledged. "Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give." I think we could be on to something, happiness is kind of like a kiss, you have to share it to enjoy it. I am going to make a conscious effort this week to be friendly, happy and nice to as many people as I possibly can. I know that when we walk round the canyon in the morning, everybody says hello, stops to pet me, smiles and is nice, and for that reason my walk is my favourite part of my day.
This is certainly one of the best ideas I’ve found about happiness. And it might sound cliched but it works very well. When you make someone else happy – by, for example, helping them with something or giving them a compliment – you can sense, see, feel and hear it. And that happy feeling comess back to you.
And since the Law of Reciprocity is strong there is another upside. People will feel like giving back to you. Or they might feel like sharing it with someone else. And so the two – or more – of you keep spreading the happiness..... the happiness keeps on spreading as long as you keep on sharing it.