Small world, big reach

People like to roll their eyes about Facebook, but I love it. Last weekend, I watched a movie I'd never heard of called "How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog." The name put me off, of course, but I saw it had Kanneth Branagh in it, so I thought I would give it a try. One of the best decisions I ever made. The movie was funny and poignant and witty. It was intelligent and subtle, a writer writing for writers and I immediately moved it into the favorites list, along with "Chocolat," "Truly, Madly Deeply," "Love Actually," and "Amelie."

On a whim, I searched for the movie on Google and found it was a first-time effort for a young writer-director. A student film, in essence. On another whim, I Facebooked the author and found him.

Working for a newspaper, I'm all too aware that people tend to call more with complaints than compliments. Only the day before I'd seen the movie, I'd fired off an email complaint of my own to the home office of a Tullahoma food store that is NOT Food Lion about one of their stupider policies and how badly it was handled.

Wouldn't it be nice to let someone know how much you like their work for a change, instead of how much you disliked it?

So I sent the writer a Facebook message telling him how much I loved the movie, thanking him for making it.

The next morning, he responded, thanking me for thanking him and all in all it was a fun exchange that left everyone feeling good.

I think I'm going to try to that at least once a day -- send someone an email thanking them for doing what they do.