Waving is Good
By Jim Nowlan
Not long ago I moved from a tiny town to a small city (8,000) in central Illinois. To be closer to the action, ya’ know: band concerts; ice cream socials; veterans’ sandwich sales in the park; even a professional summer theater festival, and a mayor who personally waters the huge flower-bedecked urns along Main (talk about good politics).
A broken-down professor, I have been conducting a social science experiment in and around my new town. My finding to date: Waving is good, and more would be better.
An inveterate walker, I give a rather hearty wave to every car and pedestrian I confront, along city streets, country roads, park lanes, rails-to-trails paths. Nine of 10 I meet wave back. The fraction may be higher, but the sun’s glare on windshields sometimes blocks my view.
Some wavers seem a bit startled. After all, they don’t know me from Adam, nor whether I am progressive, a Trumper, or maybe even QAnon. Yet wave back they do. Most accompany their wave with a smile, which is an added bonus. The only thing they know is that I am a human, like them, and, somehow, we’re all in this together.
There are different waves. Fortunately, I have not received anything close to the tortured figure-S wave of beauty pageant contestants atop parade cars. The best wave is from cars with windows down, when each of the two people in front enthusiastically shoot their arms way out their sides of the car, at roughly 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock, and twirl their arms, always nodding or smiling as well. I call it the All-American Wave.
There have also been grudging waves, but waves nonetheless. Take the beady-eyed, wizened old farmer in his seed corn cap astride the cab of his fully-loaded, $100K, Ford 250 quad cab pickup.
I could tell from a distance he was determined not to wave. His right hand gripped, tight, the very top of the steering wheel. So, as he came real close, I waved again. Somehow, he couldn’t help himself—in recognition, he raised the index finger of wheel-gripping hand almost, not quite, straight up as he sped by. I counted it as a wave.
I was introduced to waving by the old B&W, cowboys-and-Indians Saturday matinees of my youth. Out on the Plains, an Indian chief, or maybe it was Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s faithful companion, would solemnly hold up the flat of his right hand to approaching Indians. “We come in peace,” said the hand.” That was a wave. That’s what waving is all about.
I began waving as a rural state legislator, decades ago. Being neighborly is good politics.
In our snark-infested social media platforms, the human touch is absent. Waving is a healthy antidote. It might even be infectious.
I don’t expect this piece to create a wave (sorry, couldn’t help myself) across the country. Yet, just maybe, more of this totally cost-free waving will remind us that, no matter our differences, we’re all in this together.
The author now lives in Princeton, Illinois. His latest book is “Politics—The Starter Kit: How to Succeed in Politics and Government” (June 2023).
