R E S P E C T

At the risk of sounding older than I pretend to be, I wonder sometimes if people have forgotten the meaning of the word “respect.” Or maybe just how to use common courtesy. A simple drive to the store has my heart kicked into overdrive because some moron suddenly wanted my lane and didn’t think my being in his way had any bearing on the situation. Then there’s the woman who almost runs me over because she turned into the parking lot one handed—the other was holding a cell phone. Again, my being in her way is irrelevant.

Inside the store itself is no better. Customers gab with their friends, while blocking the aisles with overflowing carts and uncontrolled children. Then there are the people who barrel down the aisles with their carts, once again forgetting that physics thing about two objects not being able to occupy one space. No better are the employees who don’t seem to want to do their jobs. Check on a price? Are you kidding? Manually input a credit card because the little swiping machine sucks? Ha-ha? Tell me where something is? You expect me to know? Get off that personal call to ring me up? Dream on.

New words enter the language all the time, but there are words that seem to have been forgotten. Words such as please, thank you, excuse me.

It’s a shame really, how our civilization has become so uncivilized. Let’s all aim for random acts of politeness. Even better, make being a polite a habit. Life would be so much nicer, for everybody.

Cheryel Hutton
www.cheryelhutton.com