Outdoor and indoor voice is a phrase I learned from Chris’s nursery school teacher many, many moons ago. As I entered the school I witnessed a little tyke running around screaming his cheery morning hello at about a thousand decibels. “That’s an outdoor voice, Kyle,” said the ever patient Karen. “We use our nice, soft indoor voices when we are inside the school.”
Well, I learned this week-end that Chris has an outdoor voice and an indoor voice. His indoor voice around our apartment is sometimes hard to hear, and his indoor persona is kind of glum and rarely smiles. Not so, the outdoor Chris. As an official greeter at church, the outdoor Chris warmly greeted people in a hail and hearty way, smiling broadly while firmly grasping and pumping hands. He was the man.
The indoor Chris, I deduce, is a product of the monotony of living at home with his parents and having no regular social interactions through job or school. Judging from the performance I saw this week-end, this indoor personal will eventually change as Chris’s life gathers momentum.