Wasted Smiles

I guess when three million people live on top of each other, and not a single one of them has faith in their own system, some things get lost in the shuffle and fall into the cracks. Things like please and thank you, holding the door for someone, coming to a full stop to allow a really old lady cross the street, waiting in line... things like that... they get lost. People forget about them. Or, better yet, their values shift. What they once thought was important no longer is.

There really isn't enough time to practice classroom values when three million people who have no faith in their own system are breathing down your back. You should hurry up, pal, and get out of their way, pal. You should quit wasting their time, pal. You should just take care of your business, pal.

Even surrounded by that negative energy for the last four years, I can still spot an American a mile away in this clusterfuck of three million whose values have shifted away from their teaching and preaching. Heck, I was in a supermarket near my house just last week and two walked by me and I knew who they were, and how far away from home they were. Wanna know how? I'll tell you how I can tell. I can tell by the way they walk. I can tell by the looks in their eyes. They act differently. They have different auras.

Now I shared something with them that they also shared with me. We shared it together, even if it was for a fleeting moment. This little something we shared bonded us immediately and we both knew who we were. Nothing needed to be said, we both just knew. We shared a common courtesy that we both grew up with and decided to keep well into our adulthood.

It still amazes me after these years just how far this common courtesy will go. It still amazes me how good I felt after giving it and then receiving it with those Americans in the supermarket by my house.

I will share it with you when we meet because we both still think it is important. Sadly, I don't share it with those who won't do anything to build their own faith in their own system, because they don't think it is important. I quit sharing this important-to-me courtesy with them. I got tired of realizing that with them, they were just wasted smiles.