A couple of weeks ago, I was just hanging around waiting for someone. We were on the outskirts of the city, on a pedestrian bridge, over some railway tracks .... don't ask, that's a whole other story. FYI: It doesn't include jumping, leaping or any attempts at defying gravity.
The foot bridge linked a kampung (a small village) to the fringes of the city. In the short time I stood waiting, and the kampung-folk passed by me on the bridge, I had received more genuine smiles, waves and "hellos" than I would have been able to scrape together from a year's worth of city-folk passing me on the average city street.
The rat-race, we city-dwelling urbanites sometimes feel so privileged to be a part of, can so consume us that we lose sight of the simple but really important things ... you know, good manners, civility .... just being friendly. Making a living in a tough, competitive arena that is the city, is a poor excuse for replacing these simple courtesies and values with the selfish, detached and ultimately the arrogant creatures that urban living seems to breed.
It is a poor excuse because we all must realize that rural folks have worries and problems just as relevant and demanding as ours are to us. They just haven't forgotten to, pause ... breathe ... and actually live a little with their fellow man.
It took just simple smiles to make my day. I hope, my smile in return, even if just for an instant, brightened theirs too.
Warning: Beware of crazy, smiling woman at a city near you!
nice write up
ReplyDeleteThanks, feishannie!
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