Downward Salute

If this is how fads start, I have been correct all my life to be cynical. Warning: This story may not be suitable for all viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.

About three years ago, not long after I started my current job, I was having an emphatic conversation with myself about some topic or another. Yes, I was talking to myself, and having a really good time of it, though I can no longer remember what was so funny.

What I do remember was that I was gesticulating at key points. I was alone, so it did not seem terribly relevant. However, as I turned a corner, a coworker suddenly appeared in view, just as I was in the process of quickly swinging my right hand from the area near my left shoulder down towards my waist.

Amused at having been seen (from about 30 feet) waving my arms for no apparent reason, I smiled and shouted a cheerful hello.

Unexpectedly, the coworker brought his right hand up to his left shoulder and gave a formal downward salute – very similar to what I had done, but polished, like it would have looked like I did it on purpose. I smiled at this and didn’t think about it for days.

However, the memory resurfaced when the same coworker greeted me the same way a few days later. Gradually, more and more coworkers began using this gesture (imagine a Nazi salute, but pointed down, not up, and with smiling) to accompany whimsical greetings. At first it was limited to the shift I trained with in my building. Then it was limited to my building. Now, almost three years later, people from almost all shifts and buildings randomly do this, much more often to each other than to me.

I’m pretty sure I started this. I haven’t repeated it. I only did it once in that first moment of randomness. But to all appearances, it is now familiar and used by hundreds of people.

If this is indeed my fault, I have to assume it’s still localized to a small region of Wisconsin. But if I see this on network television ten years from now, I will take humanity a little less seriously. I will also be proud of myself to no end and have yet another reason to laugh myself to sleep at night.

This is why I love people, and yet avoid them most of the time.