WOW! Positivity in this land! Chin up Americans! We are the change we need!

For the past month, I have been participating in a social experiment I stumbled across through a facebook application called NetworkedBlogs! The way NWB works is to connect your blog to your fb page(s) and of course there are a ton of cool features to go with your new account, once you get it set up! In this instance, I am talking about having again, stumbled my way through the account set-up to discover conversation threads. The topic of the particular thread I choose invited the participants to join in a one-day blog swap event! I thought that sounded very intriguing; a grand social experiment_ I was drawn in immediately! The host of this thread, is a college-age woman in Pakistan. I have bonded with her courage, creativity and generosity in cyber-space, over this past month! What has come of the event is that approximately 21 people who randomly joined the thread and were equally intrigued with this idea then, registered in order to get paired together. All the way from Pakistan, I have been paired with another woman from Portland, OR_ just an hour-and-a-half north of where I live! On top of which, we are discovering very complimentary similarities, as we continue to communicate about the subject for our cross-posting on the 7th of this month. It is just a really nice experience that is being experienced mutually.
The reason then, for this post is that out of all this synchronicity world-wide, my blog swap partner, Carrie Ure, a freelance writer, writes for a positive newspaper called the Portland Upside. I am just discovering it tonight as she has related an article she has written that I am going to let you find. Hint: it's in today's publication! What's the date today? What's her name again?!
What I discovered in reading this newspaper_ published and available online, is another story featuring a graduate psychology professor at Lewis & Clark College by the name of Mary Clare. It seems, she (Mary Clare), took an incredible journey across the entire USA during the first 100 days of the new administration, She set out to talk with 100 people in those 100 days. Some of what has emerged from her solo journey and project is a website and a blog, called EX:CHANGE 2009. The colors used in the lettering for the project-name are intentional; what came out of those 100 days and 100 interviews is still being transcribed, but she discovered several distinct patterns. Of paramount significance is that we all really want to drop the differences and listen to one-another; turn away from the media-mania and listen to one-anther!

I know my post is gushing today but ask me if I care! NO! Besides it happens to be my birthday, and I am just feeling like gushing about all my finds today! I hope you enjoy, attitude/ political anger-free reading here, today!
Get out here and give it a try; see what benign encounters and mutually positive connections with total strangers, or might it be friends, you just haven't met yet?

Thank-you.