In the last three weeks, I’ve had a similar situation present itself four different times.
The way it unfolds is, I’m packing things into my car at the beach, or sitting at a table somewhere doing my thing, and someone I know walks in, or walks past.
At first glance, I don’t recognise them…
Then I see who it is.
They don’t see me, or, do they..?
Anyway, I recognise who it is – I think: “hold on, that’s Brian!”
So I wave and say in a loud voice, “Hey Brian! Brian! How’s it going??”
Brian sees me, comes over, and we have a great chat.
This happened on four occasions (Newcastle is a small place)
Now here’s the thing: I don’t know if this is “right” or not.
I’m well aware I may have interrupted them half way through their favourite podcast, or that maybe they saw me and didn’t want to talk to me.
They even could have been doing some kind of walking meditation that I just ruined – it’s impossible to tell.
But my thinking is that a lot of times we see someone, or notice something at work, and we have a choice. We can say something, or we can stay silent.
When we speak up, maybe we piss someone off… But if we don’t, then not only do we miss out on the conversation, but we also risk being the person who obviously saw what was going on and chose to say nothing.
My general rule has been always be the first to wave, and now I guess it’s always be the first to shout their name in a really loud, possibly obnoxious way as well…
