This Is Us
A Visit to the Land of Nod
The nod as pandemic salute, time machine, and mystical communication device
You’re walking on an empty street in your hometown. Someone approaches and a meeting of some kind is inevitable. To ignore them would be an act in itself, since it almost seems, for a moment, like you’re the only two people in existence. Perhaps there is mistrust or fear or who knows, but there is an antidote, it turns out: the humble nod. That simple movement, if returned, can be a powerful act.
A nod is often something beyond language, whether you’re bopping along to music or offering affirmation when someone is telling a story. The slightest movement of the head can lend a sense of welcome and grant the gift of recognition to a fellow pedestrian, acquaintance, whoever you happen to cross paths with. The nod can act as a beacon of solidarity between Black people in white-dominated spaces, a form of the “light telepathy” described in Raven Leilani’s novel Luster. Nods have many meanings. In Greece, a nod means both yes and no, depending on whether the head tilts up (no) or down (yes). The Indian head nod, or bobble, can be particularly befuddling to outsiders. A riddle.
Before the pandemic, I lived in Mexico City and found my nods frequently unreturned. I’m not sure if it was…
