Every time I patronize my local convenience store, most people, including me, go out of their way to hold the door for others. It's a civil gesture albeit an easy one to extend to others. Is the fact that it is so easy why it's so prevalent? What are other situations where each of us can add more civility to the world? Do they have to be as easy as holding a door? How willing are we to be more civil to one another?
Sometimes I'm not as civil when driving my car as I could be. How about you? And though I'm not someone who cruises parking lots searching for a spot "close" to wherever I'm headed, on occasion I've gotten into one of those silly waiting games/power struggles with another driver over a space that is opening. The civil route? Let the other driver have the space. Does it really matter who saw it opening "first"?
Do you recall how many people thought they felt a difference in the level of public civility immediately following 9/11? How sad it is if I need something that horrific to remind me to work more purposefully at this. I love how I feel at that convenience store - there's got to be other ways I can get that buzz. Your ideas?
About Me
- Pat Barton
- My most recent single release - "My True North" - is now available on Bandcamp. Open my profile and click on "audio clip".
I love when I pull up to pay for my Starbucks order and the cashier says the person in front of me paid for it. Usually they ask if I want to pay for the persons behind me, and of course I do! One day I asked and I was the 72nd person to pay it forward. Lovedthat.
ReplyDeleteAlso saw a person at the grocery store with a child buying a Happy Birthday Daddy cake, milk, bread, and peanut butter. When her bank card was denied she said to take the cake away. I stepped up and paid for her groceries. She asked why I would be so kind I told her to just do the same one day. After she left the cashier asked why I would do such" a thing". Because it is the right thing to do,
Great stuff Jim; I'm going to try that Starbucks routine.
DeleteAnd I'm not at all surprised you went out of the way to pay for that woman's groceries; you're one of those civil people I'm thinking about.