“All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?”

Eleanor Rigby — The Beatles

There is an apocryphal story told of a women who worked in a meat packing plant. Towards the end of of her shift she locked herself in a walk-in freezer. She banged and screamed on the door but no one came. Within a short period of time she began to experience hypothermia. After a few hours she had resigned herself to freezing to death. Shortly thereafter the security watchman opened the door of the freezer and she was rescued. While waiting to be taken to the hospital she asked the watchman why he came and opened the freezer door.

He told her that although it was a large company, very few people greeted him in the morning or said goodbye in the evening. She was one of the few who practiced this small amenity. He remembered that she had greeted him that morning; but had no memory of her saying goodnight to him when she left. As a result he became suspicious and went to look for her and in doing so saved her life.

When I heard this story I thought about my own actions. I realized that I rarely said good morning to others. Not only didn’t I greet strangers on the street; I didn’t say good morning to workers in stores I frequented, to people who delivered my mail, to garbage collectors or even to coworkers at my job. More often than not I was so self absorbed in my thoughts that I just walked right past people.

Right then and there I decided to say good morning to whoever I met during the morning hours for one year.

No, I wasn’t hedging my bets about being locked in a freezer. It was more about my belief that as human beings we are all deeply connected. Except for recent history, we were tribal in nature and very much entwined in each other’s lives. 

Once I began the practice, I  found that in the vast majority of cases people responded with a reply of good morning and a smile. There was a slight but perceptible relaxation of their muscles and a slowing of their gait. It was as if to say, “Oh, another member of the tribe, let me show him we are connected.”

I also found that the more good mornings I uttered, the better I felt. I don’t have any scientific proof that saying good morning helps our emotional state. I’m sure one day neuroscientists will get around to placing people in MRI machines and then piping in a series of “good mornings” to see the affect on mood. 

In the meantime I will just continue to say good morning to people. I’ve been doing it for over 10 years now and it has become one of my morning rituals.