Where Have All the Manners Gone?

Prepare for a little mini-rant. It's been bubbling up for a while. And now it's ready for release. What is going on with all the bad manners these days? Here are a few examples:

• making obnoxious political comments that assume if people don't agree with the speaker their stupid, crazy or misguided (offending 50% of the people one knows)
• never saying thank you when someone provides assistance
• not thanking customers who are the reason one gets a paycheck
• talking on the phone while making a purchase at a cash register
• walking with face buried in a phone device and ignoring people one is with
• treating employees like they should have no personal life
• using every conversation to complain about something
• speaking ill of one's spouse or children to others
• always looking out for oneself with no thought of others
• screaming, blasting the car horn or giving impolite hand gestures to fellow drivers
• holding up hundreds of people so one can cross 4 lanes of traffic rather than taking a quick detour

I am just seriously appalled at how rude people have gotten. It's inexcusable, there's no reason for it and it's a major reason why people are so miserable in life. Today I had a woman in a store parking lot come over and thank me for how carefully I opened up my driver's side door next to her car. What does that tell you about what's going on in parking lots these days? She said she had been watching me. There are people watching us all. What are they seeing?

It all starts with us. We should be on our best behavior regardless of what obnoxious behavior others exhibit. It might be just the reminder those people need that we are called to a higher order, expected to raise ourselves up to a higher plane.

But here's the clincher. I think 80% or more of people (and I'm including myself here) think we're super well behaved and it's "all those other jerks" out there who need to work on themselves. It's easy to see the others' motes rather than our beams. We are all a little or a lot guilty somewhere along the line. I'm challenging myself and anyone who reads this to see where our individual manners have slipped and do something about it. Be more beautiful, more gracious, more attractive to others. Increase the light you give out and the light all around us. It will bring others up too.

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