The power of saying thank you.

One of the things I like best about living in America, or at least North Carolina, is that almost everyone is up for a conversation, almost all of the time. I’m walking down to the parking deck, or around downtown Durham, or off East Campus, and the stranger I walk past says “Hi, how are ya?” I’ve learned that the correct answer is, “I’m good, how are you?” After that the conversation can go off any number of directions, or it can simply stop with a cheerful sense of well being. In England it doesn’t work like that. Instead, you say, with your mouth half-shut, “Morning.” To which there are two answers. You can either say “Nice day for it.” Or you can say “Shocking weather again.” Usually you give the second reply and the conversation’s over.