“You’ll often hear about this society — or is it a tribe? — where everyone depends on each other and people leave their babies outside and they’re comfortable shelling out 50 plus percent of their income for the ‘greater good’ but that doing so affords you a society where politeness is defined as staying out of the way, leaving each other alone, avoiding eye contact and random moments of interaction for painful (at least to outsiders) stillness and a lack of niceties. It seems to be contradictory, and I can’t think of a better way to describe this than one instance I had in the fall, biking. I was slow to start up again at a stop light and my bike began veering into the path of another, and instead of yelling at me, or making a scene, or worse, letting me crash, without thinking he reached across, placed his hand over mine, and gently steered my bike for me to safety. The whole thing lasted about five seconds. It was at once a point of contact and an anonymous, closed gesture that acknowledged we were in the same environment but let it stop there. My dignity was intact. We did not stop to look at each other. He sped on.”