How to Behave in an Elevator

1. Face forward.
2. Fold hands in front.
3. Do not make eye contact.
4. Watch the numbers.
5. Don't talk to anyone you don't know.
6. Stop talking with anyone you do know when anyone you don't know enters the elevator.
7. Avoid brushing bodies.

- Layne Longfellow

No one ever said to me, "Now, Becky. This is how you ride an elevator." But somehow I got the message.

And even knowing from experience that when I get on an elevator and push the number for the floor I'm going to, the elevator will dutifully stop on that floor and open the door for me. I know there's really no need to WATCH the numbers to make sure it happens.

Yet I find myself doing it instinctively.

I also tend to stop talking to someone I know - even if we're in the elevator alone. This is mostly because I'm concentrating so hard on watching those numbers to make sure they're moving in the correct direction!

Several years ago in downtown Atlanta, while taking a paralegal course in a large multi-story building, a childhood friend, whom I had not seen in about 20 years, put his hand on my shoulder in a crowded elevator I'd just gotten on. I turned my head to look in the direction of the hand and did the jaw-drop, eyes-wide-open expression of pleasant surprise.

However, while I was speechlessly fighting the "rules" in my head (face forward, no eye contact, watch the numbers, don't talk) the 10 second window of opportunity to reconnect was over. The door opened to his floor and he walked out of the elevator.... and I never saw him again.

An opportunity to connect with another human being lost. I wonder how many other opporunities I've missed and not even realized it.... all because of social conditioning....

Some rules ARE made to be broken.

Here's to continuing the Journey... breaking the rules of social convention and having the audacity to connect with another person... no matter where I am!

-Becky