It's a small thing, really. A driver coming towards you slows, pauses before some parked cars, gives way to you as you approach. You look up, catch their eye, raise a hand or even just a thumb. A brief nod, a half-smile. Done.
I’ve done that for as long as I can remember. There's no real thought behind it, no decision to make. It's just something that happens in the moment.
I was reminded of that recently when I came across an article with one of those wonderfully long, slightly overblown titles about people who give a courtesy wave and what that says about their character. It made me smile. Not because of the list of traits it set out – fairness, awareness, humility, kindness – but because it put into words something I’ve always felt, even if I’ve never tried to define it.
These small gestures carry more meaning than we tend to notice.
For me, it isn’t a statement or a signal. It’s simply how I behave. Acknowledging someone who’s done something, however small. Noticing the moment and saying, in effect, “I see you.”
There’s no expectation attached to it. Sometimes there’s a wave back. Sometimes a smile. Sometimes nothing at all. And that’s fine. The point isn’t what comes back – it’s the act itself.
That thought took me back to something I wrote a year ago – the case for politeness, even with AI. I realised, reading this article, that the instinct is the same. Whether it’s a person in a car or a system on a screen, I tend to say please, to say thank you, to acknowledge.
It's not because it’s required, and certainly not because there’s any benefit in doing so, but because it reflects something about how I choose to show up.
It’s easy to dismiss these things as unnecessary. The world moves quickly. Efficiency matters, and not every interaction needs to be softened with courtesy.
And yet, I find myself holding on to these small moments.
Because they are moments. They're brief, almost invisible, but real. It's a tiny pause in the flow of things where one person recognises another. No history, no future, no transaction. Just an acknowledgement.
Perhaps that’s why this feels like an appropriate reflection for Easter Sunday. Not in any overtly symbolic way, but simply as a reminder to pause. To notice. To consider how we move through the world and how we meet the people in it, however fleetingly.
A courtesy gesture takes a second. It changes nothing, and yet – in that moment – it changes something.
And for me, that still feels worth doing.
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