Thank you

This might be a blinding flash of the obvious, but saying "thank you" is a pretty powerful thing. I had this renewed awareness today in a fairly unlikely place...the orange line bus.

The MTA drivers get a lot of grief in my book. People rushing to make the bus, yelling if they missed their stop, angry if traffic is throwing off the schedule, bickering over the fare; I've seen a lot in the 3 months or so that I have been commuting, so I can only imagine what it looks like over the span of a typical day.

The orange line stops at North Hollywood, where everyone exits and then rush across the street to catch the red line train. As he announced the end of the line, the driver said, "and have a wonderful day," which I found to be very nice. I shouted out "thank you" and gave a little wave as I walked past the driver's door, you might of thought that I just gave him a $100 tip, he lit up and enthusiastically thanked me back.

Our parents taught us well, as please and thank you go a long way, even in our ever-advancing, fast-paced, technology-savvy society.

Think about that the next time you are out on the street and say thank you to someone who is doing something for you, even if they do get paid to do it. You just might make their day.