I believe in saying hello or hi to people that walk past me. I just like being friendly with strangers.  I don’t want to stop and talk or be creepy, I just want to express the notion that I see you and hope you are having a good day.  I little smile, head nod, or the actual spoken words just seem to make the world more pleasant when you aren’t overtly ignoring the person 3 feet away as they pass you by.

I understand that some women don’t like to say hi to men because the general scumbag types interpret that as an ‘opening’.  So some non-intentional rudeness in the world is understandable.  Rob B used to talk about “the mutual interest wave” where two exercisers of the same discipline, always acknowledge the other.  Runner, cycler, roller-blader, the motorcycle low-wave…whenever you feel a kinship with the person heading the opposite direction, you have to say hi.  It’s an unwritten rule.  I have to admit that when a mutual-interest person ignores me, I actually feel slighted.

I also like saying “good morning” to people in the office when I get coffee and first walk in. I know that everyone thinks I am an anti-social jerk, and while I don’t necessarily want to be friends with people I see as I walk by, and I certainly don’t want small-talk, I do think it’s important to acknowledge all of them equally.  Kids, colleagues, support staff, and other workers not part of ‘fido’… I say hi to them all.

But in my limited travels I feel I have to point out some generalizations.

1. People in the south are the nicest and ALWAYS say hi
2. Local islanders (Caribbean)  are nice, but that might be commerce based
3. New Englanders are a mixed bag.  Unpredictable
4. Older people tend to be friendlier
5. French-Canadians are the absolute worst (sorry Derik)

I don’t care who you are or what you do, saying hi is the polite thing to do, stop ignoring me 🙂