Comic strip of two office workers. One is disturbed that the other was friendly and said, “Hi!” I drew this comic strip in 2000.
The other day, I was jogging and passed a professor I knew rather well. I said, “Hi!” He looked mortified. Perhaps it was because I was in jogging clothes. Maybe it was because I was hurtling by him at the blinding speed of six miles per hour.
I come from a small, midwestern, Indiana town where everybody knew your name and what you were up to. I thought everyone gave a nice, “hi” to everyone until I went to the big city. I soon learned to to make eye contact and give the appearance you didn’t realize the passerby on the sidewalk existed.
It’s strange, but I’ve felt more alone in big cities than I ever did in my hometown. So excuse me if I see you and assault you with a “Hi!” That’s just the way I was raised.
I drew this comic strip for a ministry that reached out to programmers in Silicon Valley. Let me know if I can help you out with a cartoon or illustration!