Potential friends are everywhere!
Seems to me it’s a matter of opening one’s eyes, ears and, (although schmaltzy), heart.
Maybe that’s it. OPENING UP to the possibility that a person (sitting next to you in a class, on a plane, in a presentation, in a book club, at a dinner fundraiser, in a house of worship or in line at the movie) could become a friend is uncomfortable. It feels like a risk and an alien concept.
So let’s talk about the benefits and bonuses of being open to possibilities and how we view strangers.
I’ve said this in my presentations for years: according to data on violence, statistically harm comes to us from those we know; not from strangers.
(From 1993 to 2008, among homicides reported to the FBI for which the victim-offender relationship was known, between 21% and 27% of homicides were committed by strangers and between 73% and 79% were committed by offenders known to the victim).
“In 2011, in incidents of murder for which the relationships of murder victims and offenders were known, 54.3 percent were https://www.susanroane.com/keynote_speaker/motivational-business-presentation-topics/
(acquaintance, neighbor, friend, boyfriend, etc.); 24.8 percent of victims were slain by family members. “ (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 10.)
Instead of Don’t Talk To Strangers, we should say, “Be wary of people you know.”
Talking to strangers is statistically NOT a risk.
Now that’s out of the way, let’s proceed. Friends/potential friends are everywhere.
About Susan RoAne
