Being more Glaswegian

Hello friends,

I’m just back from a week in Glasgow. It was my first visit to the city. I think it’s the friendliest place I’ve ever been. I was there on my own for most of the time – holed up in a hotel room with a project to finish. I spent my days writing, thinking, writing – just going outside for fresh air and something to eat. I thought it might be a lonely time. But everywhere I went, people wanted to chat.

Where are you from? What are you doing? What’s your name? Or just the very Glaswegian hiya – and off we’d go. Waitresses, bar staff, taxi drivers, shopkeepers, reception staff, fellow diners – it was a joy. The city’s slogan – People Make Glasgow – is everywhere and feels true.

This should not have been a surprise. Glasgow is famous for being friendly. Why’s that? I like this simple explanation: people in Glasgow are friendly because they’ve grown up in a place where people are friendly. The real question is how did people elsewhere become unfriendly?

I’d like to think I’m quite a friendly person, but what would it be like to make friendly thoughts and friendly actions the default mode? To work, write, move through the world generally in a spirit of friendliness? To be a little more Glaswegian?

Imtiaz Dharker grew up in Glasgow. In her poem Letters to Glasgow she wrote this about being friendly to a stranger: “getting to know them better / is like opening an unexpected letter.”

You can’t be friendly on your own. You need others to be friendly with.

And so I repeat what I wrote at the start: hello friends.

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Featured image courtesy of Unsplash. ‘People make Glasgow’, a low angle view of building with People make Glasgow billboard.