A socially chilly town, Seattle. So many people say that, maybe there’s some truth to it.
Seattle drivers are horrible, they say. We don’t know how to drive in the rain.
Not true. People just don’t like how we drive in the rain, but Seattle drivers are expert at driving in the rain.
Some of us have horrible bus-riding manners.
Toward the back of the bus, two rows are just in front of the back exit. On a bus I take, the frontmost of those rows is taken by an older man who sits on the outer seat. As people board, he watches to see if anyone is going to ask him to free up the inner seat. On days he isn’t aboard, another silver-haired, steely-eyed older man does the same thing.
Some of us like a window seat. These seatblockers passively deny others the inner seat although they have no interest in the view out the window.
I used to think this was a uniquely Seattle failure until I went to San Francisco and saw the exact same behavior there.
The New York Times had an article about it– “manspreaders,” these guys taking up two or more seats.
So evidence abounds that we are not always a perfectly considerate society.
The other night, my wife and I went to dinner at a friend’s house. A special occasion for us. Never before had we gone for dinner to the home of another couple with a little boy.
What should we wear? What should we bring?
At the end of the night, we analyzed how it had gone, and evaluated why we thought the night had been successful.
We were invited to go over at 5:00, but didn’t get there until 5:30 because we had to wait for our son to wake up from his nap. We told them when to expect us as we found out ourselves.
We were a little late– that’s always a plus for the hosts, and we kept them in the loop so they weren’t surprised or unable to use the extra time.
We brought a bottle of wine. That’s always a positive. It’s no big deal, but it’s something.
We dressed nicely, but not in clothes we would never wear among ourselves at home.
We ate everything we were offered, with compliments to the chefs, including dessert.
After dessert, we were all mindful of keeping on our kids on their usual evening schedules, so we left.
Socializing isn’t so hard after all!