If I get on the bus in the morning and say "hello" people usually say something back to me. Not much, maybe, but at least I will get a couple of words in response. I might even start a conversation. When I go down to London and say "good morning" on the metro people look at me like I have come from another planet. Worse, they eye me up with suspicion, wondering if I want something from them. At all costs they avoid eye contact. And, no-one smiles. Everyone seems so unhappy.
I've worked with homeless people for twelve years and I find a real contradiction. They will always talk to me, share jokes and are always incredibly honest. It seems the more you have the more unhappy you become and the less you have the more potential you have to be happy. This seems crazy.
It was true too when I was over in Bolivia recently. The people were extremely poor but they had the widest smiles you ever did see. I was coming to them from the West and the expectation is that I have something to offer because I am coming from such a rich world. Maybe, the opposite is true and they have something to offer me.
We cannot use the "poor but happy" as an excuse for doing nothing - that would be morally ridiculous - but there is something in a strategy which means that you create solutions by giving and taking in equal measure rather than just solely giving or solely taking. More and more people in the "have" world are taking pills for depression. Perhaps if they could see the smiles of the Bolivian people then they might brighten up and perhaps in return the metro people could care a little about other people around them, like the Bolivians, and we might end up with some solutions in the world.
Have a nice day!
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