January 14th, 2013 - Say "Hello" to everyone I see

HELLO!

In the film Waking Life, the main character bumps into a woman while he's walking through a dreamscape (the whole movie is a dreamscape, so that doesn't narrow it down, but I digress). He mumbles a "Sorry," and moves on, to which the woman replies that she wants to do that again, and that she doesn't want to be an ant. "I mean," she says, "it's like we go through life with our antennas bouncing off one another continuously on 'ant auto-pilot' with nothing really human required of us."

I never want to get to that point, and I feel like I'm doing a good job of it so far.  I consider myself to be a pretty friendly guy.  I smile a lot, and I laugh a lot, and I hope that I make most of the people around me happier because they know me.  I start everyday at work by going around to everyone's office to say "hi."  Nothing special or formal, just "Hi," "What's up?" "How's it going?" and other simple greetings.

With all that being said, today, I set out to be a little friendlier.

Because the "what's up?" nod is a personal as a text message, which means that it is not personal at all.  And what's with the questions "What's up?" or "How's it going?" anyway?  They are questions that we ask people that we come into contact with countless times.  But do we ever want to hear an answer other than "Not much" or "Pretty good"?  If someone actually answers with something more than those short, clipped responses to our short, clipped questions, isn't it a little odd?

So my goal for today was simple.  It was to go beyond this informal type of greeting that I mindlessly take part in each and every day.  Instead, I said "Hello (insert name here)" to everyone that I saw.  Now, let me clarify.  I wasn't yelling at people on the street (although I did wave and smile at everyone that passed me while driving to and from work...and because of the way I drive, that was a whole lotta people).  I also didn't shout across the library this afternoon to say "Hello," because, come on, it's a library, have some decorum.

What I did was start every interaction I had today with "Hello (insert name here)."  If I didn't know their name, I read it off their nametag (Dan at CVS).  If they didn't have a nametag, I introduced myself (Roger at the gas station).  It took a little effort, as I kept wanting to revert back to the greetings that I habitually use.  But I did my best, and for the vast majority of my day, it worked.  I felt happier doing it, and I even met a few new people (Rita, the clerk at the grocery store, was by far the nicest).  It beat asking "What's up?" and not really waiting for a response, and it beat the dumb nod that barely acknowledges a person's existence.

It was something simple to do today, but I had never taken the time to think about the various interactions I have throughout the day.  We bump into so many people, and we might as well take the time to say "Hello" when we do.

So, in the words of Bizzaro Superman, "HELLO!"