So...you know those games where you're driving and it's like...5 points if you hit a mailbox, 10 points if you hit a street light? (I was going to say pedestrian, but that would be terrible).
I mean, I don't think people really play these games. (I hope). But people joke about them. You know what I mean?
Well, anyway. It's a thing. Really.
So, as I walked around town this morning, I starting to think about what you'd get points for if the game was more civic - or perhaps, I might say, more neighborly.
Here's what I've got so far. What would you add?
Civic Street Game - Scoring Rules
5pts for saying hi to a stranger
5 bonus points if you can do it without being creepy
5pts for sharing your umbrella with a stranger during a rain storm
(No bonus points because it's impossible to do this without being creepy. I've tried.)
5pts for picking trash off the side walk
5pts for (safely) removing sharp or otherwise hazardous debris from the street while you cross it
5pts for mailing random mail you find on the sidewalk (because apparently that happens)
5pts for volunteering helpful, relevant information to a stranger (eg, "Just so you know, if you park there, you'll get towed. Yeah, I know the signage is terrible!")
10pts for helping someone who's slipped/tripped/fallen
New England special: 5 bonus points for pretending to ignore someone who is clearly okay. Nobody saw you look like an idiot. Everything's fine.
1pt for telling someone they're still wearing a name tag from some event they went to
1pt for telling someone you know that they should stop standing on the walking side of the escalator
1pt for giving someone accurate directions
5 bonus points if you admit that you honestly don't know and while you'd love to be helpful, you're probably better off if you find someone else to ask. Sorry.
Can I get some points for this: when someone drops litter on the street, I pick it up and say to them, "oh, you dropped this" and hand it back to them, sometimes pointing them to a trash can nearby. This is getting harder to do as people increasingly are plugged into their devices, making them oblivious to people talking to them.
ReplyDeleteHa! Yes, Mary, you definitely get points for that!
ReplyDeleteI've also found it interesting how people being increasingly "plugged in," so to speak, makes it harder to return things even when they would want it back. I've had an increasingly difficult time returning dropped cash to people, for example.