Re: Adults Have Lost the Ability to Smile, Why?

I'm a South African, which means that I'm used to a very friendly sort of atmosphere in general. You go to a shop, say hello and greet someone with a smile, they'll greet you back with a matching smile on their face. Go to any event, strike up a conversation with the person next to you, and go home with the memory of a pleasant interaction. So when I read Living Kindfully's post, it got me thinking about how different my experience here is. It also made me realise that I have actually experienced what they did, but only when I've been out of the country (India and China). In those places, it wasn't a surprise to me that people didn't really give anyone else the time of day. In fact, I came to expect it. The concept of "stranger" really was exactly that – when you looked at an unknown person, you didn't immediately assume shared context and dive into a conversation. In fact, if someone you didn't know was looking at you, they were probably waiting for you to pay for something, waiting…