A lot can happen when you say "hi"
By Brent E. McCoy thereal@adelphia.net

The other day at work, we were talking about "magical" words. I have no idea how these things get started, but they do. I was once told that the two most magical words or phrases in the English language are "please" and "thank you." I believe that this is true. There are also other magical words like "abracadabra" and "allakhazam."

There is an interesting relationship between these four words. For example, if one is having trouble solving a difficult problem at work and screams, "Abracadabra, allakhazam" in the hopes of a solution magically appearing, one is likely to hear, "I will thank you to please not do that!" By the way, now I remember how the conversation about magic words got started in the first place.

A lot of the magic in a phrase is in the spirit it is uttered. If you have teenagers, you'll know that, "I'll do it right away" is not a magical phrase, whereas, "I did it right away," if not magic, certainly takes on magical proportions.

I think that one of the most magical words we can utter is a simple "hi." It can also be "hello," "howdy," "aloha," or any other form of friendly greeting.

I don't like standing in line or sitting someplace next to someone and refusing to acknowledge that I'm not alone. Usually, after not a very long time, I'll simply look over and say "hi." Most often, this other person, who has avoided eye contact with everyone around him, will reply back with a "hi." Sometimes they just continue to stare off into space as if they didn't hear. This usually happens if we've met before and I let it drop. But, once we reach agreement that we both exist, some good things can happen.

We were in San Diego last weekend and I found myself riding the elevator down with another gentleman who was working very hard at avoiding eye contact. We started on the 12th floor and it was going to take us a while to get to the lobby. I knew it was going to take a while when I saw that some cleaver little scoundrel had pushed all of the buttons from 12 to L before exiting at some floor above me.

We rode on in silence for several floors until I said the magical word "hi." Actually I might have said "howdy" because I do that a lot. Anyway, he acknowledged my greeting and returned to staring at the buttons to make sure that the elevator did not stop at a floor out of order.

I said, "Are you here on business or vacation?"

"Vacation," he replied. But this time he made eye contact. I asked where he was from. He told me that he was from North Carolina.

"Really," I said. "My wife is from North Carolina."

As we finally reached the lobby, we determined that this gentleman and my wife were from towns about 30 miles apart.

We were in the lobby and free to go our separate ways but we stayed and talked about the weather, LAX, flying, our kids, and the similar drought conditions in California and North Carolina, We chatted for about 15 minutes and we learned a little about each other and the places we lived. We ended our chat after I gave him directions to a few places in San Diego and we wished each well.

The 15 minutes we spent chatting was more enjoyable than just standing around waiting for the time to pass. And it all started with a simple "hi."