Have you noticed that friendly conversation among strangers is a rarity these days? I don’t mean just a nod and a hello. I mean real conversation.
I hadn’t really given it much thought until I stopped at a local grocery store on Monday.
An elderly man, at least 80 years old, and I approached the milk cooler at exactly the same moment. He grabbed the handle, opened the door and reached inside for a gallon of fat free milk. He looked at me and smiled. He then handed me the gallon of milk.
“Here, you can take this one. I just took it off the shelf, I hardly touched it.”
I smiled, took the milk and thanked him. Perhaps taking his cue from my smile, he continued talking.
“You know, I never used to drink fat free milk. Not for me, no sirree! But my doctor kept telling me I should. So I did my research. I looked at the nutrition information and you know what I saw? The bad fat was gone but all the good stuff was still there! How about that? So, why not switch?”
I smiled again, He was actually quite charming!
I told the gentleman that I was the same way. Years ago, I didn’t want to give up my whole milk. Then I switched to 2%, then 1% and finally fat free. I agreed that it certainly was the healthy choice. We smiled at each other and shared wishes for a good day.
Later on, I couldn’t help but think about what a pleasant interaction that was. And then, I wondered why it doesn’t happen more often.
Imagine what might be possible if we stopped and spoke kindly to the people we don’t know, instead of taking care of business and quickly moving on. Imagine if we not only passed on being first, but also helped the person who is next. Imagine if we just smiled more at each other. Imagine if we bade strangers a good day.
Imagine.
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Photo credit by Teakwood, used with Creative Commons license.
