By Merlin Lessler — <\/p>\n
I have \u201cstreet people\u201d friends. I don\u2019t know the names of most of them. You pass each other a few times, nod hello, and progress to \u201cGood morning, nice day, isn\u2019t it.\u201d<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t need to know each other\u2019s names, their bios, or anything else. You walk and are happy to see they are still around. It\u2019s a \u201chello and a comment,\u201d type of encounter where you respect each other\u2019s privacy beyond that. <\/p>\n
These \u201cstreet people\u201d friends pop up all over the place. The contact is life-enriching. I have them in our village in New York, where I reside much of the time; in our neighborhood in Florida; on the beach; in coffee shops; and in other places where repeated encounters take place. <\/p>\n
One thing I noticed early on in the \u201cstreet people\u201d friendship world was that young people don\u2019t readily engage in this exchange for the most part. They walk past as though you are invisible if you are a senior or a really old coot like me.<\/p>\n
It won\u2019t change unless you force the issue, which my friend Scotty in Florida is a master at. He says he\u2019s not satisfied until he reaches 50 greeting exchanges a day – \u201cHi\u201d or \u201cGood Morning\u201d or whatever greeting is appropriate when he\u2019s out walking, biking, jogging, or at the beach surfing.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s so easy; just do it, and you can break the barrier between the young people\u2019s world and the old coot world. <\/p>\n
It’s kind of amazing how many people you run into on a regular basis \u201con the street.\u201d Move to a new town or neighborhood and walk or circulate on a semi-regular basis (coffee shops for me) and soon enough you won\u2019t feel like a stranger. Just say, \u201cHi! How are you doing today?\u201d and move on. You\u2019ll never live in isolation again. You\u2019ll have \u201cstreet people\u201d friends.<\/p>\n