A Wave on the Way to Work
Driving to work this morning, I saw a road crew digging in the brutal heat.
One older guy holding a round “slow” sign, fanning himself with his hat as the cars filed by. I slowed down, like a good citizen. We made eye contact. I gave him the quick two fingers at the top of the steering wheel wave, you know the one, and he tipped his hat back. A blink and you miss it thing.
In my mind, a mutual recognition that we’re both just out here trying to make it through another day. Different circumstances, but same basic human situation: showing up, doing the thing, hoping to go home soon.
Then, I was past the work zone and back in my own thought bubble of what do I need to get done today.
But it happened and I’m still thinking about it.
In retrospect, I realize that for that moment, I felt a little bit more connected. A little bit safer. Makes me wonder what a day full of those moments would feel like. Would we all walk around feeling a little more connected, a little less isolated? A little more seen? What if a bunch of these tiny acknowledgments can help us feel secure in this anxiety filled society.
I say the more of these little connections we have, the safer the world feels. And the flip side is true too: the fewer of these moments, the more dangerous and disconnected everything starts to feel.
I don’t know what he was thinking or if it even registered for him the same way. Maybe it was just another car slowing down for his sign, which, by the way, likely made him feel safer because I paid attention to his sign. But for me, it was a reminder that the smallest things can cut through all the noise and general chaos that tends to diminish our perception of our own worth and the value of others and reconnect us to just being human.
Hundreds of these interactions would absolutely make the world seem different, seem better. It would ease our anxiety. It would slow our pace. It would heal our society.
And that seems a good, easy place to start in making right now a better place: a smile and a wave.