What does a hello cost?
How much energy are you exerting when you smile?
Do you have the time to sincerely ask someone how they are doing, listen to their answer and reply accordingly?
Were you taught to mind your manners as a child? If so, are you still minding them today..do you say please and thank you?
We live in a extremely fast-paced world, almost everything we do is in a rush to meet some sort of deadline, timeline or schedule. We rapidly move from meeting to meeting in the office, to rushing home to pick-up kids for after school activities or to the gym or after work meeting to grabbing dinner, heading to bed and starting the cycle all over again. We go through the motions when it comes to spending quality time with our families, friends and loved ones. True meaningful connections are a void in our daily life.
Jonathan Franzen stated in his book Freedom that for a generation with such modern conveniences we live the most inconvenienced lives. Think about when was the last time you were actually fully present and in the moment of an activity or conversation? You weren't multi-tasking....thinking about work, texting, tweeting, reading an e-mail or mentally somewhere else?
Our country is in a national state of mourning due to the tragic murder of 20 children and 6 adults in Newtown, CT. last Friday. Right now there is a heightened sensitivity and in our vulnerable state we as a society and community of citizens appear to be a little nicer and connected.
We're saying hello
We're smiling
We genuinely have concern for how our neighbors are doing
It's unfortunate that it takes tragedy to remind us to engage in civil discourse and to mind our manners. It's my desire that our current state of concern and friendliness towards fellow man will become a new way of living in our country.
After all,
A HELLO cost nothing!
It takes more energy to frown than it does to smile.
Sincerely asking someone how they are doing and listening to their reply may be the silver lining in their cloudy day.
Your mom and grandmother would be so proud to see you minding your manners!
Let's make a commitment to not only remember but to practice the Golden Rule...Do unto others as you would have done unto you.
CARPE DIEM
One of my favorite childhood animals, was a stuffed bean that said "Be Nice to Me...I'm a Human Bean"
3 comments:
What a wonderful article, and a reminder to me that my parents taught me well. One of my pet peevs is to cross paths with a stranger make eye contact smile and they act as though I'm invisible. I've always thought that was so rude. I speak anyway.
What changed about that is the fact that I look like one of the most loved person in the world, Oprah Winfrey. Their not speaking to me, their just not taking a chance of not speaking to Oprah. I accept this greeting anyway. As far as that horrific day in Ct. I just pray that we don't forget and do something to change. I have made it a point to make contact with a person after a loss several months later just to let them know that I still feel their pain. Being nice and treating people like human beings is easy if we just do it. Just plain good manners.
It is nice to know you still practice you manners.
What a wonderful world it would be, if we all did.
Mom
What an amazing article and a wonderful reminder of what it means to treat people as you would want to be treated. Life is a precious gift that is often times taken for granted and tomorrow is not promised to any of us.
Each day that we wake up is a gift and a blessing from God. I agree with you that often times it takes a tragedy to bring people, communities and even our nation together. The sad part about that is that we only tend to come together when tragedies occur such as the Newtown, CT shootings where 26 innocent children and adults were gunned down at school.
It is not enough to only work together when tragedy strikes, we must continue to work together to ensure the safety of our nation and schools so that such a tragic event does not happen again.
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