Hurry Up, Please -

When was the last time you heard anyone tell their children, "Mind your manners"? Yes, I thought so. Children aren't taught manners because parents don't bother with them either. We rush through our lives, communicating through technology, with limited personal exchanges, let alone niceties like please and thank you.

Texting has all but done away with punctuation, grammar and spelling. We rely on emoticons to get our feelings across, rarely on inflection, tone and facial expression. I truly believe we're raising a generation of children who will not understand the art of conversation.

And the hurry up-ness of all of our communication is a natural offshoot of our lack of patience, low tolerance and zero courtesy. Where do we most often experience this uncivilized behavior? You know the answer. In our jobs and classrooms, sure. But driving...that's the biggie in my book. The term "Road Rage" seems to have first appeared only as recently as 1988. Which means that for it to have become as commonplace as it is, there must be a whole lot of it going on.

A radio psychologist, known to her loyal following as "Dr. Laura", has one pearl of wisdom that I often quote. She says to "Be polite." To the estranged family members who must see each other at the occasional gathering. To the divorced parents trying to remain amicable for the sake of the children. To the disgruntled employee looking to coexist peacefully with the boss. To to harried woman who can't seem to get her mother-in-law's respect or acquiescence regarding the raising of her children. To all of them, Dr. Laura says to be polite.

Think about it. If we were all polite, what a different world it would be. Disagree, debate, assert, delegate. All of them are still possible, but so much nicer, with politeness.

That having been said, driving to my home in a semi-rural suburb, any way I choose to get there, I must cross a one-lane bridge. I can tell who the mannerly neighbors are, as well as the not-so-neighborly ones and the "interlopers". As I drove in this morning after an errand, I crossed two of our little bridges, and had two different experiences. But the second is the one that sticks with me. I'm so used to waiting on my side of the bridge, as yet another car flies up on the tail of the last, tagging on so as to make it across in the same round.

Today, as I waited for a car to complete the crossing, two motorbikes approached from the other side. And stopped. To let me cross. We took turns! We waved, smiled, and continued on our way. Feeling calm, with a little flush of happiness, I was pleased to be on the receiving end of good manners. Good manners have become a simple pleasure where once, they were the norm.