A small exchange of words with a friend on the bus after school.
"I was listening to Velvet Underground while walking to class...I had a spring in step."
"I was listening to Dr. Dre...I had a limp in my step."
While walking to class at Pan Am this afternoon, I had been listening to "Stephanie Says" by Velvet Underground. This song put me in the best of moods. I listened to the full song for the first time after I stepped off the bus, and as soon as I got into the rhythm of it, I couldn't stop smiling.
As I walked through the Student Union, still smiling, I made eye-contact with several people crossing my path. Some reluctantly smiled back, others assumed I could see right though them and was smiling at something behind them, I guess. It made me wonder, "When was the last time me or anyone else gave a full smile to a stranger?". I usually just smile awkwardly to whoever I come in contact with, and vice-versa. The rest of the people I cross paths with ignore me, as I do them. It's a bit pitiful that we're so into our little worlds, and I daresay a bit self-centered when it comes to being in public, that we don't have the mind to greet and smile at a stranger. I've experienced places where EVERYONE says a humble "howdy" or "hi", or at least acknowledges your existance. I'm wondering why it's so wrong to do this here, and how it became custom to completely ignore the kid who sits behind you in English when you see him at H-E-B, or the lady whom you've seen in church before, standing next to you in the elevator as you both make your way to the third floor.
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