Had to start off on a personal note there, before getting down to business, so as not to be rude. Now, I don't know about you, but I tend to go to places of business for, well, business. But here there's another piece to that interaction. I'm not sure how much is a north/south difference or an urban/rural difference - I think it's some of both. But I've noticed that I'm so used to operating in the former mode (north + urban) that it's taking me some time to really get used to this Southern small town.
Imagine going to a well-known office supply store to send a fax. You're in a hurry to send this fax because it relates to your taxes, someone's waiting for it on the other end, and another someone is waiting for you out in the car. There's one person behind the counter and several in line. The worker chit-chats with each person in turn, starts their job and personally oversees it to completion. Your turn finally comes after waiting in line for 20 minutes and the guy turns to you and says something. That was me a couple of weeks ago.
"I need to send this fax..." I began, but stopped myself. I had expected the guy to have said something like, "How can I help you?" or "Who's next?" But he hadn't said that. He said, "You look familiar, have you been here before?" Which was to say, "I know my regulars, and you aren't one of them. Are you new in town?"
I mentally pressed rewind and started over. "I may have been here once before, I'm not sure, but my husband and I just moved here from Minnesota."
"Minnesota!" exclaimed the worker, and two or three other people forming the line behind me, which wasn't a vertical line at all but more of a horizontal gathering, where everyone just remembers who's on first and waves people with smaller jobs than theirs ahead so they can all watch the production. Wouldn't you rather watch someone laminate coloring book pages than stare at the back of some stranger's head? I would.
Fortunately, he took my fax and got it started before continuing on the Minnesota thread, what the weather's like up there this time of year, how fortunate I was to have missed it, but how cold it's been here too - it actually snowed for a couple of hours that one day the other week. (I've gotta give it to 'em - it was blowing sideways. I was so excited that day I got out of the car and danced in it, at least for a few seconds.) My fax went through, he eventually went and got it off the machine and gave it back to me, I paid, and we all said our goodbyes like old friends. As I walked out to the car I realized that my stress over getting the fax sent out had been replaced with a pleasant sense of having been noticed and welcomed.
It's strange to me, given the fun, relational person that I am naturally, that it hasn't just come naturally to relate that way (at least not on every occasion), but I guess that's some sort of "culture shock," combined with my tendency to lean the opposite way and bring some kind of balance, while my practicality and efficiency screams for the ref to call a time-wasting foul (*blows whistle and winds finger in big circles in front of other wrist where a watch might be*). I mean, it's not quite Africa or Brazil where everything's so relationally driven that time is thrown out the window, but having been to both of those places gives me some understanding for the different values that are at play here. People matter more than tasks. I can appreciate that!
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