Good Manners

It’s been a while since I put anything up here.  I am so sorry. It was really bad manners to neglect my devoted readers.

I live down here in the South, in the land of good manners.  Children are taught at a very young age to address adults as “Ma’am” and “Sir.”  Obviously that alone does not constitute good manners, and, unfortunately, I’ve seen a good many children, and adults as well, whose training in manners extends no further than “Ma’am” and “Sir.”

Folks, good manners is so much more than just addressing adults by proper titles.  Manners isn’t about saying certain things and doing certain things. It isn’t about knowing which fork to use at a formal dinner. It isn’t about not wearing white shoes after Labor day.

Good Manners is about respect.

Good Manners is treating people as you would like to be treated in a perfect world. It’s about putting people at ease and making them feel comfortable. Often it is as much a matter of knowing what NOT to say, possibly knowing enough to say nothing, rather than knowing WHAT to say.

Good Manners is really very easy but it may take a bit of retraining.  Very simply, think of what you would like to be on the receiving end of, and act accordingly.  Grammatically pathetic that was, I know.  But it’s really very simple.  If you don’t think you’d like people calling attention to a mole on the side of your face, don’t call attention to someone’s mole on the side of their face.  HOLY COW–that means you  may have to start engaging the brain before putting the mouth into gear.

Strange concept for these times, especially when we can post whatever is on our mind almost instantaneously in 140 characters or less, and out to the whole world! The new social media has made it much easier to communicate faster; it’s still up to us to do it better.