Saturday, 19 January 2008 @ 9:48am.
i wonder why more people don’t say hello to each other on the streets or sidewalks. i find that i am usually the one who initiates the “hello” or “good morning.” the thing is, once i do say something, the other person tends to respond with a greeting in kind, plus a big smile. nice. so how come they can’t start the exchange before i do? sometimes the other person might be in his/her own world, isn’t in a good mood, or didn’t hear me well, fair enough, but that doesn’t happen often. i have observed an age difference, too, where older people are more likely than younger folks to say something. there’s the whole small town versus big city difference as well. i’m much more likely to smile and say hi to someone in my local neighborhood than while walking in downtown melbourne. oh, and then there is the matter of individuals versus groups. folks walking alone probably greet each other more than a group and one person or a two groups passing one another. and is it just me or are people with pets and/or children much more friendly?
being an american in australia has its pluses and minuses. it also has its strange moments. yesterday i was on the train and a lady pulled out some “big red” gum that was cinnamon flavored. she told me it was a limited edition and she had stocked up before the shelves ran out. i couldn’t help myself and giggled. who would have thought that a country would have limited stocks of cinnamon gum and that this young woman would have to resort to writing to wrigley in the hopes that the company can mail her a supply later? i wonder why cinnamon is not that popular here and in quite a few other countries and cultures… by the way, one of my favorite memories was hiking near gunung merapi close to yogyakarta and having the guide cut a small piece of bark off of a tree so i could smell it. i didn’t know what he was saying in indonesian initially, but quickly figured it out after i sniffed the wood. it was fresh cinnamon! how cool!
when i watch the news on television here, i have gotten in the habit of waiting for the happy-go-lucky cutie-patootie oh-how-adorable animal story that inevitably appears at the end of each newscast. i have noticed that each news station does this and that it is often the same story. baby zoo animals are regularly shown. after hearing about all the difficulties and conflicts around the world, perhaps a 20-second blip on a cute critter is needed. i wonder, though, why the mass media doesn’t show more *human* feel-good blurbs at the end of each newscast. what about all the beautiful, wonderful, and special good deeds and amazing changes or progress that people are making on a daily basis? sure, i love animals and think it’s great there are stories about them, but after an hour of hard-core and sometimes unbelievably crazy or stupid stories, why not give audiences some inspiration, motivation, and positive role models?
