I think people also overlook opportunities to talk... at their peril.

I remember going to a motel (they actually had cabins) to reserve a place for relatives coming into town. The owner was a nice guy, and he ran the whole place himself.

I took the girlfriend with me, drove over and we walked over to talk to him. As I started the conversation, you could see he took pride in his place and he was a garrulous guy with sort of a twinkle in his eye.

"How much will this cost?!" the girlfriend blurted out.

All of a sudden the blossoming conversation ground to a halt, as he put his hand on the back of his neck and started thinking about what a cheap room would go for.

We talked about it later, sort of like "I think we were all starting to form a relationship at the start of the conversation, and we lost an opportunity"

I think all of us have these opportunities to form a relationship with lots of people we interact with every day, and we can allow it or deny it.