All in a wave

The human tendency (at least, I think it applies to all humans, although I haven't tested this theory among all the world's cultures) is to wave to a video camera. It's almost instinctive; as soon as the camera begins to whir, the jazz-handed wave greets the viewer.

We seldom sporadically wave in other parts of our lives. When driving down the road, we don't wave to fellow passerbyers. We don't wave to others on a train or if we see another plane crossing air space, miles away.

But, I noticed this weekend when vacationing at the beach, that we do wave to other boaters. I felt as if I was on a parade float, waving to people as we zoomed by each other. On almost every boat we passed, the passengers waved to us...and we waved to other passengers, sometimes instigating the acknowledgment ourselves.

And it made me think of other times that we wave to people. And I think that we have a higher tendency to wave to people when there's a personal contact made, like eye contact. In a boat, you can't help but see the other person coming towards you, and once that personal connection is made, it's rude not to wave. Maybe it's a way of embracing our humanity, sharing our collective sameness, acknowledging each other, especially when you have no other choice but to. In a car, we're distracted; we have an excuse not to wave and the person never really knows if we saw them or not. But out in the open - whether it's on a boat, or walking down a neighborhood sidewalk, or passing someone on a carriage ride - things become a little more personal.

Maybe we should all wave more, even when we're in our cars, or in a place where we normally don't wave. If anything, it's a friendly gesture, even if you do start to feel like you're in a parade.