My wife had surgery last week so I spent 3 days hanging out at the local hospital. You get kinda bored sitting there watching your loved one sleep so you read a lot and pray, this particular hospital had wireless so I was able to send emails and give my staff lots of work to do. I think they were glad when she got to go home! If you are like me you also walk around just to stretch your legs and stay loose. There was a coffee shop down on the main floor and I was on the 12th so I was in the elevator a number of times. I’ve always found it awkward in those situations, you know close proximity with other human beings and yet no eye contact and certainly no communication!
I decided to try an experiment every time I entered the elevator. I wanted to to see if I could get people to interact for the short trip to their floor. A smile was okay but to actually engage in a hello or something like that was really what I was looking for. So it began, I jumped on that mobile closet and started engaging the isolation that keeps us apart. At first it was pretty intimidating, talking to complete strangers but I pressed on. You could tell that some folks were just flat shocked that I said anything to them at all! I mean I wasn’t asking people for money or anything, most the time it was a simple hello. Reactions were all across the board. Some folks seemed pleased to not have to stand and feel awkward like I did and began talking away as if we were old friends. Others did indeed reply with a warm hello but then went right back to their imaginary world that they were actually alone.
I was fascinated by all the different and colorful personalities I encountered over those three days. God made people pretty great. On the last trip I made, the elevator stopped at nearly every floor until we got to the bottom so the thing became jammed packed with interesting people. I said one simple word of a humorous nature and everyone laughed. By the time we hit the ground floor people were talking with each other and I even heard some words of encouragement given from one to another as they departed. It just goes to show that you really can break through isolation and connect. Next time you are in an elevator give it a try and see what happens!