Well, it appears that those in charge of probing and advocating friendliness have not been very busy lately. That very well could be why there may be a paucity of good deeds happening. Or just maybe we have encountered the components of unfriendliness or self- centred ego-centrism.
It was not long ago that when one encountered another person they made eye contact, flashed a toothy grin and said g’day or gave a thumbs up or some other gesture of goodwill. But lately the most one can get, if anything, is an opaque grunt or a sound more normally associated with some sort of renal discomfiture.
It is difficult to pin down what has caused this decline in friendliness. Why do so many people appear to be disdainful when casually encountering one another?
Perhaps an assemblage of psychiatrists and psychoanalyst should be convened to study the aspects of this growing decline in temperament. It could even be an infectious malady that could be passed on like a transmissible disease.
It is possible that some in the medical community might suggest it could lead to a psychologically unhealthy condition to encounter someone and not exchange at least some minimum of pleasantries. Such a social amenity should distinguish us from more rapacious animals. Ignoring the presence of another person could be seen as an insulting and ignoble act.
On the positive side, there are some people who have not succumbed to this condition medical journalists have dubbed as the cold shoulder. Upon encountering these people, the greeting of a smile, a handshake or a breezy hug will immediately shake the gloom one may have been feeling before their gleeful encounter. Admirably, the joy and happiness that these people happily share with everyone they encounter is a favourably humane act. The recipients of such joyful feelings are likely to be infected by such encounters and feel that warmth of the goodness throughout their bodies.
So the next time you casually encounter someone, try greeting them with a gleeful expression of some sort. Avoid being a grump. That gleeful moment might just brighten their day and make you both feel elated and happy to be alive. Who knows—such behaviour might just be contagious.
