Kaleb and I were on our own for church this morning so we decided to walk home, it was a nice breezy day for it and the rain was holding off so it was perfect. I started the trek through the busy streets of Toronto (with my trusty Phil & Teds stroller of course), stopping for an extra large dose of Tim Hortons caffine and an old fashion plain timbit for my littlest Timbit. As I walked I noticed something that I had noticed in New York as well but didn't have time to think about until today.
We don't connect. We walk down the street and either chat on the phone or text, email, facebook or whatever else we do these days to keep from actually looking into a persons eyes and seeing them. So, as I passed people I decided to try and connect...
my first attempt was a dismal failure... it was a woman who, like me, was walking with her stroller and coffee. I figured she would be the perfect victim for my experiment, with no cell phone attached to her ear and with a child in common I thought we could look up at eachother as we passed by and say hello, share a smile and move on our way. I was wrong. As she passed me she didn't even glance my way, even though I am sure she felt my eyes on hers, she made a passing comment to the toddler in the stroller about the pretty day and ignored me completely.
Next, a man on a cell phone who was walking at a fairly brisk pace... he at least looked at me but when I smiled he looked away. Was my smile so horrific that he couldn't bare to see it? What was going on? Next, a guy on a bike... he wouldn't look at me but at least Kaleb got a little half grin.
On and On it went, all the way down the Danforth, every person I passed I smiled at and you can imagine in a city the size of Toronto on a beautiful Sunday morning how many people I passed... I got a total of two smiles and one of those came from a child.
So, here is my plan... PROJECT SMILE! I am going to go for walks around here as often as I can and I am going to look people in the eye and smile at them and hopefully, maybe, one of those people will take notice of it and smile at the next person they pass on the street... thus beginning a wave of smiles across the beautiful city we call home.
Once when living in Halifax, I was waiting for the bus and a woman in a business suit was walking towards me very quickly, while talking on a cell phone. I thought. "My, that woman looks very busy." As she went by me she was actually saying, "I am so busy, I don't know what to do." Busyness can zap our existence on earth and leave us troubled and confused.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of people do not connect anymore because they are very sad inside.
Keep smiling and trying to connect!
MM