You touch on something more important than it first appears. Thanks Jeremy Helligar.
I have friends that talk to everyone in their path. Traveling with them takes forever to get from point A to point B. I am not like that, but I can see the value in what they are doing, and they obviously really enjoy it as well as the people they engage with.
“If you’re smiling, the whole world smiles at you” Gosh, how could you pass by Louis Armstrong and not say hallo.
People feel less lonely when someone nods in their direction. Loneliness, is practically an epidemic in the US.
Acknowledging strangers is maybe more a learning, practice and management thing. There is a fear (small but determining) that an open gesture maybe shunned, and so it is safer not to make it in the first place. Too, there is the fear of being unable to end an exchange once begun, and so, better not to begin.
I ask you Jeremy, do you talk to the stranger along side you on a plane? I must say I try to, and the times I have not, I have quietly regretted. The management thing is involved. Social queues (open a book to say that you are done talking for the moment).
Manners are superficial but at the same time very real and important. They are both the structure and mechanism for our communication. And, the more communication the better, yes?
I recommend, should you not be familiar, the writing of Alexander McCall Smith. Delightful, and all about importance of manners.
