My mom is standing with me in line before saying goodbye at the airport, and most people are stone-faced, waiting to check-in to their flight.
Mom is singing "kingdom kids" definitely loud enough for the people around us to hear. They remain silent and stare forward.
She recognizes friends in multiple other lines and walks over to talk with them, hear their plans, and take a group selfie.
For no immediate reason, she befriends the woman in front of us and even remembers her name when she says "bye-bye Kristin have a great flight!"
It was no different walking to the neighborhood grocery store.
Everyone we passed was given at minimum a smile and a wave, and if they acknowledged, or gave the teeny-tiniest glimmer of friendliness back, they were in danger of stopping the Anna train for a full conversation and exchange of contact info.
She said, "Wow! isn't that amazing that we would run into them?! all the way from Bulgaria! and those two little girls are so cute! what was the dad's name?!"
"Svet. Can we please not talk to anyone else."
"Okay....... i'm sorry jofie.......... you know why i do it..... this place, people are so unfriendly, they don't even look at you! they don't even have a welcome committee when you get here! So me and Andrea go walking and ALWAYS reach out and smile and talk to people because you never know how lonely they are! or maybe no one has even talked to them since they got here, or ever!"
I bite my tongue and don't suggest that she might be projecting her loneliness onto others? Which is something I do. I guess we are not that different...............
I am her son.
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The fact is, the WORST damage she could do is: annoy someone, and they walk away thinking "she is nosy and intrusive".
The BEST outcomes could be:
Lifting a neighbor out of sadness or depression.
Getting someone a job.
Getting someone a date.
Connecting 2 people that would never have met otherwise.
Reducing the judgement/contempt for the stranger you walk by in your neighborhood because now you know their face, story, or name.
Obliterating the fear of making the first move and getting rejected.
There are certainly a few haters of the "Anna Garlington approach" out there, but i'm pretty sure they are overwhelmed by the {i would say hundreds?} of people that have been inspired, uplifted, or encouraged by her presence over the years.
So as much as I cringe when she is spelling out the letters and numbers of her Gmail to the woman in front of us who nods and says, "okay, I think I can remember that" at the airport check-in line, my mom is kind of a superhero of friendliness,
and I think we need her to save us from time to time.
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