Your smile for the day

While this has almost nothing to do with natural or organic products, I have to share this video with you.

Matt Harding, a “31-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play videogames,” decided to get up off the couch and travel around the world to see what was out there. Throughout his travels, him filmed himself dancing in various places. Thanks to the magic of YouTube.com, Matt became an internet sensation, which led him to go on another world-wide dancing expedition, courtesy of Stride Gum. Due to Matt’s internet popularity, Stride offered him another trip, this time to go visit all the cities with fans who had written to Matt, asking if they could dance with him.

I know it sounds crazy and strange, but this video absolutely took my breath away. At first, I rolled my eyes and was all, “Ok, yeah, whatever, he’s a goober dancing, big deal.” But then I kept watching. And I started to cry.

To see people come together like this, all around the world, and dance with complete abandon and without embarrassment, is amazing (my favorite part is when Matt is in India, doing a classical dance with all these trained dancers). And for all the bad things that go on in the world, and for how bleak and dreary everyone makes the future seem, this video gives us hope. As clichéd as it sounds, it makes me believe that, one day, we’ll be able to connect with one another, to cooperate and get along with one another, and, most importantly, dance with one another without hate or fear, but with love and understanding.

(And, just in case the boss lady tells me I need to make this somehow relevant to NPM, I’ll say that it also gives me hope that we can come together and help save our valuable environment by making a consolidated effort to go green, support organic and local farmers, and ensure that outsourced products are fair trade.)