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Say ‘Hi’ to each other!

“I have an idea,” I say while watching football at a bar with my kids last Sunday, and they immediately get the worried looks they always get when I say this, and roll their eyes at what they see coming next: a request for them to do something they don’t want to do.

But I push forward anyhow.

“I want to start a ‘Hi’ project, you know, say ‘Hi’ to everyone you see on the street? It’s important right now,” I say.

There is a chorus of “No” and “That’s impossible!”

“Oh, right, we are in New York City,” I recall. “Then maybe one in five?”

Their attention shifts back to the Giants, back to eating chicken wings, back to playing pool and sipping their sodas.

And I am forced to remember: Life goes on. After the shock of nearly anything, the sun rises in the sky, the rain falls, the wind blows, and the children need to play. They need to enjoy. They need not be scared or warned or put to hard labor, unless those things are true and real, and even then…

Roberto Benigni did it best in “Life is Beautiful.” He played the comic, the clown, the silly daddy, in the middle of the most devastating life-threatening of circumstances. Bravo. As my mind closes in on how to involve my children in my mission of spreading love in a world where hate seems to be brimming, I have to remember him and his antics. It is children’s spirits that need to be protected most of all, their hope and their faith that everything is going to be okay.

And, it is going to be okay. But it has become abundantly clear that, regardless of who is in the White House, things must change. They already have. We can’t pretend anymore that everyone loves everyone and it’s all good. We have to take a good hard look at ourselves— our own selves — and ask what we have done and what we will do to be part of the solution. What ill do you see that you’ve ignored? What person is in need of help you can give? And, honestly? I think a lot might be solved just by saying “Hi.” I will press forward on this with my kids, if only to do it in front of them as often as possible.

What if more people in this country talked to their neighbors, let alone strangers? What if they asked them real questions, straight up, about what it’s like to be them — whatever their shade, class, creed or gender? What if they tried to understand their similarities instead of getting angry at their differences? What if they assumed best intentions?

Look, I don’t think this is going to be easy to repair all the damage that has been done over time, and that will continue because we are pack animals by nature, desirous to find our own tribe. But I think it will be highly rewarding for all of us to try because, in the process, we are likely to find it is quite lovely to connect.

That is the message I am trying to send to my kids right now, the importance of communicating and connecting in a world that seems increasingly rushed and disconnected. It has always been important to connect, but we have been given the great gift of awareness of its importance, so let’s use it! It is time to be so very thankful for one another. #sayhi

Read Fearless Parenting every other Thursday on BrooklynPaper.com.