"Thank You!" stickers

[xxv.livejournal.com]

This has been bugging me for a while, but I kept forgetting to post about it. Does anyone know what the "Thank You!" stickers posted about Davis Square (and elsewhere) are referring to?

Comments

[kpht.livejournal.com]

zomgterrorists

[lonelyholiday.livejournal.com]

ARE THERE WIRES?!

[hoppzor.livejournal.com]

OR BATTERIES?!?!

[joifulgurl.livejournal.com]

*cue widespread panic*

[magpiefirefly.livejournal.com]

Call the bomb squad!

[adaptively.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but they look awfully sinister...

[spatch]

It hasn't been bugging me; on the contrary, I think they're rather cheerful. I have no idea where they come from, but it's certainly a nice message.

I've also seen them over in South Station.

[xxv.livejournal.com]

I agree that it's a nice message -- it wasn't bugging me in that way :-)

[turil.livejournal.com]

I just recently noticed these, and then realized that whomever was doing it was copying me! I came up with an idea last fall (and posted it somewhere in LJ, I think) of making thank you cards and sneakily delivering them to people in m,y neighborhood who did nice things for the nieghborhood (like having a funky garden, art in their yard, lots of bikes parked in front of their house, etc.). I only delivered a few, but it was a lot of fun looking for nice things and thanking people for them.

It's probably a complete coincidence, but I was amused. Aparently expressing gratitude is one of the number one ways to bring more happinesss to your life, according to many scientific studies:

Gratitude exercises can do more than lift one's mood. At the University of California at Davis, psychologist Robert Emmons found they improve physical health, raise energy levels and, for patients with neuromuscular disease, relieve pain and fatigue. "The ones who benefited most tended to elaborate more and have a wider span of things they're grateful for," he notes.

Another happiness booster, say positive psychologists, is performing acts of altruism or kindness visiting a nursing home, helping a friend's child with homework, mowing a neighbor's lawn, writing a letter to a grandparent. Doing five kind acts a week, especially all in a single day, gave a measurable boost to Lyubomirsky's subjects.

Seligman has tested similar interventions in controlled trials at Penn and in huge experiments conducted over the Internet. The single most effective way to turbocharge your joy, he says, is to make a "gratitude visit." That means writing a testimonial thanking a teacher, pastor or grandparent anyone to whom you owe a debt of gratitude and then visiting that person to read him or her the letter of appreciation. "The remarkable thing," says Seligman, "is that people who do this just once are measurably happier and less depressed a month later."

From Time Magazine's Happiness article (http://www.reflectivehappiness.com/AboutUs/TimeMagazine/)

[xoynotsmilexo.livejournal.com]

kind of like that girl who was giving free hugs at bu or whatever.

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

The free hugs thing is a world wide phenomenon!

http://www.free-hugs.com/

Maybe coming soon to Davis Sq (once the weather warms up - or we find a place that serves great hot chocolate)

[dmcgettrick.livejournal.com]

I think someone should start a free "kick to the crotch" campaign...

[aki.livejournal.com]

God,I hope not. I was born and raised in New England. I don't want strangers touching me.

[karmaportrait.livejournal.com]

similar to you are beautiful (http://www.you-are-beautiful.com/)

[aki.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering about those too - I've seen a couple in the Central-Inman Sq. area. I've no idea where they come from, but I can tell you that Lush uses the same font on their products.

Mysterious Stickers...

[rainbowbride617.livejournal.com]

If they are the orange stickers with white font that simply say "Thank You", they were given out by the Deval Patrick staff and committee at his election night rally. I think it's been kind of neat to see them make their way around Massachusetts, another symbol of his wide reaching impact. I'm not sure if those are the ones you are referencing, but hope it helps!

Re: Mysterious Stickers...

[sooperkev.livejournal.com]

Funny, I've been wondering about these stickers too. Seen a few different versions along the bike path near Davis square. Both versions have "Thank You! printed on them in black ink. One is a thin rectangular white sticker while the other is a round fluorescent orange sticker. So...the ones I've seen aren't the Deval Patrick ones. I wonder if the sticker bandit is simply thanking the powers that be for the various things the stickers are stuck on.
Thank you for the trash bin, thank you for the light post, thank you for the Lowell street bridge, thank you for the fire hydrant...etc.

[braingeyser.livejournal.com]

I imagined someone making up a bunch of "Thank you!" stickers to send to all the lovely people who gave him holiday presents...then, not getting any presents at all, he went on a bitter "Thanks for nothing!" stickering spree.

But I guess rampantly spreading joy is good, too.