Bloated with "Nice to Meet You"
When "knowing" people doesn't always mean that you actually do know them.
I'm astonished at how often we say "goodbye" and "hello" to people we consider friends or acquaintances, a by-product of much time that usually passes between seeing one another. As people in a developing country—and in a city—our social circles can be quite big. We see hundreds, or maybe of thousands, of other people each day, and numerous of those we end up knowing. It's so many that when we finally come back to meeting with a particular friend, although we are greeting an old friend, it's almost like we're meeting somebody for the first time, or after a long absence. They're somebody we knew, but so many things have happened in their life since we've seen them last that maybe we don't even know who they are any more.
We couldn't possibly tell them all the tough things that are happening in our lives. And so we tire ourselves out in our greetings and re-acclamation with people that "going deep" with people has become uncomfortable. It's laborious catching up over and over again, so much so that we don't have the emotion to talk about real issues, if we even have the people that we regularly see enough to feel safe opening up to someone else.
And so, "it was so great to see you" and "well, this was a pleasant surprise" find their way into our vernacular, and dominate it. And we walk from door to car, and car to door, and we rarely connect with anybody—unless we find ourselves catching up with an old friend. Because most people don't know how to say "hello" to real community anymore. Just "goodbye." And that is when "nice to meet you" starts to not even mean what it naturally implies.
