Note: This is not just another essay about the kreppa. Many smart people are working hard right now on trying to figure out a ways out of the economic crisis.

Many experts have proposed solutions and stimulus plans that involve spending billions of dollars in an effort to revive the failing economies around the world.

I’m not a big economy wiz and I hope someone is doing a good job out there. I’m a practical man, and I know that happy people are more likely to spend more money.

I have an idea for a stimulus plan that anyone can take part in and hopefully, in the end, it will also encourage people to spend more of their money.

I came to Iceland few months before the kreppa and to me one of the signs of the prosperous Icelandic economy was the incapability of shop keepers to smile at their customers.

I felt that business owners were too confident about the situation because their customers were so eager to buy that everyone just forgot to smile all the way to the cash register.

I remember that while living in America I was greeted every time I entered a store almost without exception. It was like unwritten law that everyone followed. By entering a shop you were entitled to be greeted and if it the friendly gesture was fake it didn’t really matter.

One of the first things I noticed after arriving in Iceland was that smiles were rare, even the fake ones. Many times while shopping or even while passing someone I was familiar with on the street, I was simply ignored; I didn’t get even the minimal nod of recognition.

It felt weird and it still does. In the beginning I blamed myself for wanting to be greeted more than I ought to, so I decided to share this observation with a few of my foreign friends to see if their experience was similar to mine.

Starting this conversation was like opening a Pandora’s Box. Everyone agreed with me and gave me examples from their personal experiences.

Some tried to analyze this behavior and one of the excuses they came up with behalf of the Icelanders was that the Nordic people in general have difficulties expressing their emotions, especially in public.

Hugs and kisses are rare, even among friends and couples. You can sense an uncomfortable sentiment while approaching an Icelander with a genuine hug or, God forbid, a kiss.

I don’t think many Icelanders would feel comfortable reading this but I’m sure that many of them will agree. As an Israeli, I know, nobody likes to be criticized. But I also know that many wish things were different.

Icelanders deserve to be smiled at like anybody else. We all deserve to be greeted by our friends and family members and also by strangers passing by. Showing courtesy to a fellow human being is not a burden; it’s an acknowledgment of our own existence as members in the family called humanity.

In the Talmud there is a story about a Rabbi who was known for being the first to greet everyone he met, even if it was a stranger in the marketplace—a virtue that I’d like to share with you. I decided to take the Rabbi’s example and greet and smile at everyone I see.

It took me some time to get used to it but I enjoyed every smiling moment. I discovered that smiles are more contagious than the flu.

I believe that the people who were greeted by me won’t forget about it anytime soon. I made sure they won’t and I guarantee that my smile will be reflected back at me the next time I see them. I dare them to ignore me. I don’t care if their smile is fake, any smile will do.

As for the kreppa, smiles don’t cost a thing but are worth more than gold. We could all be richer if we’d just smile a little bit more.

Guy Gutraiman – gutraiman@gmail.com
www.9uy.info