One of our custodians asked me yesterday after I said hello to him in the elevator: "Why don't you smile?"
I was a little taken aback, but I guess it is a fair question.
What would you prefer: a neighbor who has a perennial grin on her face, or someone who appears to take things seriously and isn't ready with words (and smiles)?
I didn't ask him that of course, but I said after I had gathered my thoughts together (about half a minute): Oh well , I am smiling at you now! How are you?
Fine he replied with a toothless grin and a Mexican accent.
That was why I never bothered to wish him, and his female co-worker, a good day. Each time I seem them, they are conducting their conversation in Spanish. I did ask them once, in Spanish, if they were Mexican, and they told me that they came from El Salvador.
What are El Salvador cleaning people doing in our Canadian condo?
The other side of the equation, of course, is that almost all the elevator riders I am with never say anything to me, and keep on talking to each other in Hindi or Urdu or Arabic and of course in Spanish. I do hear the occasional English, and these days it is an elderly couple with the gentleman always in a hurry to be out of that elevator - a little like me. I've said hello to them a couple of times, but I don't want to trouble them and leave them to their thoughts and worries.
That's why I don't bother with my Canadian niceties.