I liked this response to a blog post urging people to say hello to 5 strangers today. It’s good to be reminded that these things are cultural and regional, not ingrained. We can learn to be more community minded! I admit, though, that I was startled when someone in my apartment building in New York actually started talking to me in the elevator one day, first about shoe laces that won’t stay tied, then about the party he was going to, the friends he was hanging out with and didn’t want to leave…. But I could get used to having people talk to me, I think.

When we lived outside of Seattle for 10 years there were people on our street who never left the house, and when we would walk in the evenings wouldn