Hello. Just a quickie today as I've been moonlighting and writing for a friend's blog where I've been writing on my usual theme of food, talking about what irks me about the paleo diet.
Recently, we experienced something that highlights a subtle difference between the US and the UK. Dom and I bought a digital piano, something we've always wanted, at a music store about 1.5 miles from our house. As we'd gone out grocery shopping and also refuse to own a car here, we were ill-prepared for this spur-of-the-moment shopping trip, and found ourselves having to carry a very large, heavy box back home. Fair enough, as our friend Ian has been using CrossFit to make us mightier over the last few months, so moving a big object was a good work-out.
Twice on our journey home though, we were pleasantly surprised by warmth of human kindness. The first time was when we had to get our piano down a big flight of steps on the way home: a car drove past as we were resting at the top of the stairs. The car stopped suddenly, reversed back and illegally parked near us. A random guy jumped out and told Dom that there was no way he'd let her struggle with the weight, so helped me down the stairs with the box and then went on his merry way.
A little bit further, an SUV drove past us, double-backed and a lovely lady insisted that she drove us and the piano the rest of the way home. Having two random strangers giving that kind of assistance highlights the more positive aspects of the USian psyche.
I'm fairly sure that wouldn't have happened back in the UK. Not because people are less kind or warm, but probably due to hesitation due to social anxiety of having to talk to a stranger / worrying about being patronising by offering to help / worrying that the people you're offering help to think you're trying to mug them / etc, etc. It's a social anxiety that I've often had myself ("if I offer help to this random woman, will she think I'm being creepy..?") and I don't consider myself to be particularly reserved.
Americans generally are a bit more socially confident: I've seen guys asking girls on a date without getting blind-drunk first!!! While this forwardness can be quite disconcerting at first ("Why is this person talking to me? We're on the metro! Don't they know the rules!?!?"), it eventually stops feeling weird or even unpleasant...
