Hello?! HellNo

by Trav

What happened to hello?

Why has it become the abacus of conversation? It's something so simple. It's so easy, yet I hear it getting used less. Maybe it's where I live, but I thought hello was universal like music and water. I try to say hello and some people look at me like I just asked for bone marrow.

The elevator is a key spot in my building for shunned hellos. I might be batting a crisp .125 in the elevator. I like to enter with a simple hello, nothing overbearing or intense, forcing you to put your hand on your taser. Yet I leave the OTIS box with silence. And it makes me mad. I'm not demanding your life story, unless you can pull it off in the eight seconds we have together. I'm only asking for common courtesy. Why you gotta make me sit in my own silence like I'm in timeout? Why you gotta do that in front of OTIS?

I hear the elevator laughing and sure maybe you had a bad day, but I wasn't jumping up and down on your desk today. I didn't put the virus on your computer or take the last of your favorite Keurig. I'm just a man saying hello when I enter a confined space with you. I feel it necessary to say something since we are riding this out together.

"Hello!"

I look at you. I know you hear me. You look at me like it never happened. And we ride up like the Montague and Capulets. After I get out, I hope OTIS bounces you off the ground floor. Is it too harsh? I say neigh. I hope all of your limbs are intact and no scratches. Maybe just a wake up bounce off the ground. You feel me OTIS?

Come people of the world. Let's show everyone else that this simple two syllable word isn't too complicated. Don't make everyone else feel uncomfortable. It could make someone's day. Next time you pass someone in the streets or get into an elevator and they say hello, just say it back. Do it for the good of conversation. Do it for me. Do it for OTIS.