Love in an Elevator
Monday, March 13, 2006
American strangers do not like to cozy up to one another. We're a culture of personal space. If you don't believe me, look at the seating arrangement in a fast food restaurant. People are like fine-tuned computers, seeking the booth or table with the furthest proximity to someone they don't know.

That's why elevators are so humorous. If you remove the transportation aspect, they're really just tiny rooms. Where else would people be comfortable walking into a room and standing, completely quiet, with a group of strangers?

It's even stranger when there are only two of us in one of these rooms. I have an internal urge to dialogue with this quasi-intimate stranger, but I know that no meaningful conversation can take place before the fifth floor.