Friends in Austria like to ask about friendliness in the USA. They say: "When your neighbor wishes you a good day - she doesn't mean it, right? It's all superficial." I am not sure about the answer, but does friendliness, whatever the motives, not make for a more pleasant life? I'd rather have my neighbor wish me a good day and not mean it than have her bark at me and mean it.
Recently I stumbled upon Visions of Mary, a war story by Joseph Richardson. The book begins in a present day emergency room in Tennessee: A physician, a good guy who takes his work seriously, fights to establish the identity of a man who was found wandering about in a snow storm. The M.D.'s questions bring up memories of World War II in the disoriented patient. Thanks to the lost man's recollections we eventually learn that he is Colonel John Stone, an American war hero. The colonel tells the physician how he enlisted and became a pilot, how he married his sweetheart, Mary, and how he almost died when the Japanese shot down his plane, the "China Doll," in the last months of the war. After the attack, Stone and his men found themselves on a raft in the middle of a shark infested nowhere called the Pacific. Without food, water and radio connection their death seemed imminent. The men's fight for survival is where the book turns exciting: plunged into this crisis,
Comments
I was raised in the US and have lived in California for more than 15 years and the friendliness of which you speak is so prevalent here. In fact, I was suspicious of the California friendliness when I first moved here from New England. It must be fake! Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, no. But I have grown to appreciate and, dare I say, almost even expect a quick friendly greeting when passing a neighbor.
The environment in Vienna had a strong affect on me on my recent visit - it was palpable. I do understand the difference between the US and European "friendliness" and I am choosing to remove myself from my US-centric thinking and behavior, but I'm not sure it's going to be all that easy to get used to!