A handy little reminder on LinkedIn earlier this week – “March 20 – International World Happiness Day”.

I not sure that 24-hour block gained a lot of traction. I’d question the wisdom of having it on a Monday – make it a Friday and tell everybody to knock off at 3pm for beers and pizza, and you’d be some chance.

A little research confirmed that March 20 was also World Storytelling Day, National Ravioli Day, National Macaroon Day, and National Kiss Your Fiancé Day, to name but a few.

Quite a lot to focus for one quick lunar circuit, don’t you think?

I want to know who’s responsible for all these “days”, and the criteria that needs to be met before we scribble them into our calendars. Not convinced we need them all – you could make do without the macaroons for starters. Roll it in with Ravioli Day – the Italians would cop that.

There’s one “special day” that I believe could do with some heightened focus, and that’s “National Sharing Day”.

It’s already a thing apparently, but there’s currently no clear picture of when it typically falls. The date seems to have been shared around different seasons of the year, as you might expect.

But the sentiment behind it goes to the heart of an important issue – just when did we, as a society, become so rubbish at sharing?

Roads, pathways, elevators, lifts, intersections, bus seats, bush tracks, swimming pool lanes…. it seems there’s not a day go by when we’re not reminded of how single-minded (read selfish) we’ve become.

It used to be just cyclists and motorists who were at each other’s throats, cursing one another for being inconsiderate, poor sharers of communal areas. But now there’s angst and ill-feeling everywhere.

Take for instance what you might expect to be a serene early morning bush walk, up and down the trails of Mt Coot-tha.

Last Sunday, not long after first light, we had the dog walkers chastising the mountain bike riders, the mountain bike riders chastising the trail runners, and the trail runners boring it up the dog walkers for not having their “fur babies” on a lead. All before 6.15am.

Happy Sunday, people. Great to be part of a kind, inclusive, sharing community. Isn’t it?

How would we go in Mumbai or Dhaka or Shanghai, where in a surface area the size of Mt Coot-tha, there’d probably be one million people, 20,000 bikes and 5000 dogs, none of them on leads? That’d put our current sharing philosophies and practices to the test.

We should all be celebrating that we have an amazing natural bushland setting just six kilometres from the city CBD. But instead, we’re bitching and moaning because we have to share it with 100 other people.

As my mountain biker mate “BAP” politely reminded the female dog walker who’d barked at him for being on the wrong (deserted) track with his young son, “Yes… we all love to hate somebody, don’t we?”

Having just been ticked off herself for having her two dogs roaming freely, the woman could hardly argue. She smiled sheepishly. Point taken. Apologies. Enjoy your morning.

But had BAP, a noted charmer, not altered the tempo of the exchange by telling the agitated woman how much he admired her dogs, it might have well have escalated into a shouting match. Another one.

A post exercise coffee catch-up confirmed they were going on all over the mountain, terse exchanges between people violating one another’s civic rights.

And don’t forget, this is after we scrapped the Brisbane City Council’s pet “zipline” project, on the grounds that it would detract from the serenity of the mountain.

What serenity? Some mornings, there’s more serenity at Bonnie Doon than there is on Mt Coot-tha.

I’m well aware it’s a minuscule sample size and potentially an irresponsible extrapolation of the facts, but I’m still convinced it’s a trend.

So sharp now is our focus on our own needs, we’re becoming increasing poor at acknowledging the needs of others, particularly in “shared” zones.

My personal “Kryptonite” – the drivers who in their haste to beat the traffic lights, advance half way across the busy intersection, which is where they remain when the lights change, blocking traffic in all directions. Tell me you don’t harbour violent thoughts when that happens, three changes of lights in a row?

Crossing busy intersections in town on foot in peak hour can be just as much fun – people texting, watching Netflix, doing Wordle, anything but looking where they are going. For that all important 15 seconds, no consideration given to the needs, even the presence of the 250-plus people in their immediate vicinity.

Cranky? Yes a little, but seriously…

Perhaps it’s time I moved to a tiny country town, where people say good morning to one another, even tip their hat to strangers as they’re crossing the road.

I’ve got a theory as to what’s behind the burgeoning self-absorption – social media. All the self indulgent cues we receive daily, encouraging us to believe that we enjoy genuine “status”, that our opinion really matters. What’s on your mind? Tell us what you’ve been up to…Add to your story… We’re becoming less members of the community and more the CEOs of our own micro-corporations.

Listen up folks. I have my own podcast, more than 1500 Facebook followers, I get hundreds of “likes” every time I put something on Instagram – right now I’m on Mt Coot-tha, trying to get some exercise, trying to de-stress, so GET OUT OF MY WAY. This is MY time!

Perhaps I’m drawing too long a bow, but I’d be interested to hear what the clinical psychologists think. Sadly, they’re all booked up, months in advance.

Maybe it’s time we started to join all the dots? Get all the selfish exercisers, the impatient drivers, the Netflix-watching street crossers, and of course, the CEOs of their own micro-corporations, and put them in a padded room together.

And with the supervision of a clinician, encourage them to talk about what’s going on in their lives.

Get them to share their feelings and frustrations.

At the very least, the sharing might help.