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When did we become a culture in which making small talk with strangers is uncomfortable; tapping away at a glowing screen is more important than tapping into people's lives; staring out a window or down at the ground is more normal than making eye contact and smiling.
I went to Boston for a school field trip a couple of weeks ago, and riding the subway made me really think as I observed my fellow passengers. We're all so wrapped up in ourselves that we often don't see the young woman who boards, crying silently, or the man who keeps looking nervously at the ma of subway stops, or the frantic woman who almost missed her stop. If we catch someone looking at us, we think they're creepy. But maybe they're not. Maybe once we look up and around we can share a smile with the college student who almost dropped her phone as the car jerked forward, or stick an arm in the closing door so the frazzled woman can get off at the correct station.
"What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. They are but trifles, to be sure, but, scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable."
Joseph Addison
Food for thought.
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