“Patch Adams’ hello experiment in play today. A simple passing “hello, how are you” turned into a 45 minute conversation about life with a 54 year old man who was raised in NYC, studied psych at NYU, has the same favorite spot in Central Park, worked on Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and Skinnerian behaviorism, quit psych to go into urban economic planning, and worked with the Feds, then became an inventor of various random things in which he had no experience of. Fun fact: you can thank him for the beer can holders in sailboats. Hallelu! He sold his business and is planning on what to do next. You are never too old or too young to change directions and try new things!…including talking to strangers with big fluffy dogs.”
I posted this well before I even knew I was going to work with Patch. My knowledge about him was based solely on the movie and my research on the real Patch and his work. The term “hello experiment” came from the movie, I must admit, though I see the movie as a separate entity than Patch himself. After meeting him and working with him, I now must change “experiment” to “way of life.” Talking to strangers, or even connecting non-verbally is a way of life; a life of community building and connection making, a life of spreading the feeling of relevancy, and a life of learning things you never knew you never knew. Okay that last one came from watching “Colors of the Wind” on Youtube an hour ago, in Icelandic haha, but it still works!
The World Unfiltered 