It seems to me, and I’d like to explore the notion further, that there is decidedly less anger in London than on the streets in America. This is purely anecdotal, and may not be true, but its something I sense and find interesting to ponder.

I’m too often the angry American. Cut me off in traffic or stumble into me in the line at the shopping center and I bristle. Often, the other party bristles as well. But it seems there is a decided lack of bristle in the UK. However, I’m on vacation, not facing the daily battles of life and work but rather on “holiday” as they so quaintly say it, so maybe it’s just that I’m easy going this week and thus everything around me is as well.

This thought crystallized in the subway. Somebody stepped on my foot. I don’t remember if it was male or female. Didn’t matter. I wasn’t upset. They weren’t in a huff that I was in their way. And neither of us is the worse for the encounter.

Brits in London live closely together. I live on nearly 100 acres.  From my house you can’t see another. It would be interesting to know how many tens of thousands of people they’d pack into a hundred acres. It would be a staggering number.

Brits travel together. I’ve been far more intimate with nameless strangers than I’d ever hope to be as we’ve been sardined on subway cars, and I’ve been brushed with more female breasts than at any other time since being surrounded by all the black sisters screaming at the Barry White concert in Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. Nothing sexy in it. It was just people trying to get by me, through the crowd and get where they were going. These people are accustomed to living up close and personal with each other.

Then, there are the police. I haven’t seen any. Oh, I’ve seen a few here and there, mostly guarding the royal residences and seats of government. But I haven’t seen lots of cops on the street. Maybe that’s just because we’re staying in the high rent district and traveling to the tourist areas. But, I’ve ridden that darn tube all over London, so I’d think if there was danger to be seen I’d have seen it.

I’d be interested in knowing more about crime in England. There was a shooting here in London yesterday and they’ve been fishing dead bodies out of the river. So, maybe its no different from back home in the U.S. But my radar is telling me something may be different. That would be a good point of conversation for any of my U.K. friends who want to buy me a Diet Coke next time we visit in Chicago.