Ice Breakers

Hospital lifts can be pretty unfriendly places, often chock a block with disparate people, from employees to visitors, to actual patients, folk in various emotional states, from elation to desperation and everywhere in between, all keen to firstly get into a lift and then to get out of it as quickly as possible. Rarely a place for fun or conversation as everyone tends to be occupied with their own thoughts.

Having cause this week to visit a friend on the ninth floor of our local hospital, I have made some interesting observations during my journeys to the top.

Funnily enough, following my recent post concerning Hippeastrums, I had cause to smile today, as they figured in my lift experience.

The group gathered in the foyer that I joined didn't wait long for the lift to arrive, however, the group was sizeable and included a lady in a wheelchair and a young woman with a stroller. The sign in the lift stated that it could accommodate up to 23 persons, but it was clear that that wasn't going to happen on this run. I inquired of the lady in the wheelchair as to which floor she was traveling to, on hearing it was the seventh, I offered to go in before her, to save her later inconvenience of her manoeuvering around us.

Having arranged ourselves as best we could and selected all the appropriate buttons, we advanced, quietly, skyward. We were soon joined by some visitors, one of whom was carrying a vase of hippeastrums, cream and red striped and dark red. They were beautiful and so I piped up from the back of the lift and commented on their beauty. The ice was broken and a conversation ensued about a new golden variety that was now available and how this lady had dozens of these amazing flowers blooming in her garden. Lovely how something acted as a catalyst to start interaction between strangers on a different emotional level than that where each was at when they entered the lift.

The ride down, half an hour later, was another interesting one, light banter being entered into, instigated by a group of male visitors with a good sense of humour, which culminated in greetings to 'have a good day' being tossed about as the passengers alighted with smiles on their faces.

I have blogged before about my fascination with the behaviour of groups of strangers thrown together by common circumstances, how fascinating it can be to observe, watching reserve being broken down, by common interest.

Long may we enjoy each others company and make each others lives more pleasant by good interactions as we journey on this earth.

Friday tomorrow, have a great one, keep watching for those lovely flowers
Simply Susan