The little one and I made our weekly trip to the grocery store yesterday. We always incorporate some sort of game or challenge into grocery shopping, this week it was to smile at folks and see how many would smile back. This was a very telling challenge, we discovered several things...
1. none of the women who appeared to be under 50 smiled back, most wouldn't even make eye contact and hurried past us.
2. every man (who appeared to by by himself) we smiled at, regardless of assumed age, smiled back! Some even greeted us with "Good Morning". I don't think this had anything to do with us being female or flirting. The men seemed more relaxed, open to a friendly face/greeting.
3. all of the elderly couples smiled back, most said "good morning", "hello" and I found it interesting that they were already smiling at us before we got the chance to make eye contact and smile. One little lady tenderly grasped my daughter's arm and said "there's no question who your mother is, you look just like her". I'd like to think this was a compliment! I'm partial to elderly people, I think there is much to be learned from them.
4. we came up on a few couples who were obviously under 50, none of these folks made eye contact with us, I wonder if this has anything to do with #1?
What did we take away from this experience...we left feeling great, knowing we were simply trying to insight random acts of kindness. Perhaps those folks left the store and didn't give us a second thought, I'm hoping not.
