– Good morning!
– Don’t see what’s good about it – look at the weather today.
– I know, it’s been awful for ages, hasn’t it?
Countless conversations like this are based on a false premise: when we wish someone a good morning, that is exactly what we are doing. We are telling someone that we hope that they have a good morning. It is a greeting but not a statement. It is a wish for the hearer that the sun may come out not tomorrow, but today. Or despite the terrible weather we could all still have a good morning.
Sadly wishing people a good morning is going the same way as wishing people good day (how many times have you heard that recently?) I guess it’s part personality and part upbringing that leads me to wish people a good morning. I was largely brought up in a large village and we didn’t have a car so I would see a lot of people and my mother would greet them with a good morning.
It’s a small thing, of course, but it is part of what builds community, the countless threads of human contact that make living somewhere a delight and a pleasure. I hope that you will be encouraged to speak to people you see in the village, whether they are going about their business or walking the dog.
If you don’t wish me a good morning back – suit yourself. I still hope that you have one.
revcycling 
Well I will return your greeting, Good Day, Andy!
I am on the same page as you. As fellow-northerners, albeit one from the wrong side of the Pennines, we will not fall into the southern way of existing in our own little bubbles.
We have a daughter living in northern Italy and when we visit I will often walk her dog. Nearly everyone you pass will offer you a ‘Buongiorno’, to which I readily respond with ‘Buongiorno’. It’s when they say something else, as a follow-up, that I have to say ‘Excuse me, I do not speak Italian’, in my best attempt at Italian!
Happy New Year
.
Happy New Year Geoff – I might try out Buongiorno, myself!