Say it with flowers - but say it to a stranger
If someone came up to you and said, “Hi, can I give you some flowers? You don’t have to pay for them; it’s just a nice gesture,” how would you reply?
It might be worth giving it some thought, as one of these days you might well find a complete stranger bearing down on you, brandishing a colourful bunch of blooms.
This outbreak of random flower giving is the idea of landscape architect Will Sandy, who wants to help overcome our instinctive reluctance to engage with strangers, particularly in big cities such as London.
“To me, it works very much like a garden fence,” Will says. “The fence used to be something that you could lean on, while you talked to your neighbour. Now fences are much higher and topped with barbed wire. ‘It’s the thought that counts’ project is trying to do its bit to lower that fence again.”
The idea of the flowers is to surprise and delight people into letting their guard down – even if only for a few seconds. And Will hopes that when someone receives a bunch of flowers, they will be encouraged to do the same for someone else, and the idea will spread. (read more)
It might be worth giving it some thought, as one of these days you might well find a complete stranger bearing down on you, brandishing a colourful bunch of blooms.
This outbreak of random flower giving is the idea of landscape architect Will Sandy, who wants to help overcome our instinctive reluctance to engage with strangers, particularly in big cities such as London.
“To me, it works very much like a garden fence,” Will says. “The fence used to be something that you could lean on, while you talked to your neighbour. Now fences are much higher and topped with barbed wire. ‘It’s the thought that counts’ project is trying to do its bit to lower that fence again.”
The idea of the flowers is to surprise and delight people into letting their guard down – even if only for a few seconds. And Will hopes that when someone receives a bunch of flowers, they will be encouraged to do the same for someone else, and the idea will spread. (read more)
