By Mim Robson
That is the question. I recently moved into a Tyneside flat which I love, and which at the back overlooks the back of a number of other flats. I like the community feeling of this and I never really feel too overlooked myself. I’ve not met any of the neighbours I look out onto at the back but am beginning to recognise one or two and wonder if they know my face by now too. I have one dilemma though.
My kitchen window looks directly out across to the kitchen window of the flat opposite. Often when I’m washing up, I look up and see an older gentleman washing up in his kitchen across the way too. We have not yet acknowledged each other. It has been four months. I grew up in a village in the countryside where the etiquette was that you ALWAYS waved, or said hello, when you were within about 200 metres of anyone else. It would be weird if you didn’t. But I sense that it’s different in towns. And I also think it’s different when at least one person in the dynamic is minding their own business inside their house.
My instinct is to wave at this fella but I’ve hesitated because he hasn’t waved yet either, which makes me think, maybe he doesn’t want to wave. But then I think it might bring him some cheer to be waved at, and I know it would certainly bring me cheer if he waved back at me. It would be nice. Yeah. Maybe I should wave. I should definitely wave.
But then again, it’s as simple as that, because if you live somewhere, and you initiate waving in that place, do you then create an expectation that you will wave every time you see each other? That’s potentially a lot of waving. I don’t want to put either of us in a position where we are locked into endless waving when we are just trying to get on with our lives and put the dishes away. At some point, someone is not going to wave. One day, one of us will forget, or wont feel like it, and the other will be stood wondering why they didn’t get a wave today. I don’t want that for either of us. He’s my neighbour, I want good things for him.
So considering all these points, I put it to you; to wave or not to wave? Answers at [email protected] along with any familiar waving dilemmas you may have experienced or be navigating. Many Thanks. Mim Robson
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