Sadly lacking

Manners and Morals

A new edition of this book was published recently. Dealing with 'chivalry', the focus is on something that is so lacking in our culture as to be almost dead completely - courtesy. Simply courtesy. And when you try to be courteous yourself someone often responds negatively to that (you're wasting time, insulting them, being bothersome) or looked at as a bizarre anachronism.

.....

I was in a local pharmacy yesterday at lunch time. A young woman was charging down the aisles texting on her cellphone, thumbs a-blur, straight down the center of the narrow aisles with her elbows out, her Paris Hilton-style sunglasses on and a huge trendy purse/bag/near knapsack jutting out from her shoulder. She was moving for no one. Elbows bumbing into people, purse bouncing off of people, she was intent on her multi-tasking - shopping for whatever she was 'looking' for and texting someone, perhaps even 'twitting' her adoring audience. So self-absorbed that she almost had a neon sign with and arrow pointing at herself saying 'ME'. Now she may be an aberration, but I don't think so. There are kind, generous, courteous people out there, they're just getting harder to find. The death of niceness...