Monday, November 16, 2009

Whatever Happened to Common Courtesy?



Call me old-fashioned. Just go ahead and do it. You know you want to.

I have a REALLY hard time with people that don't have common courtesy. I am talking like things where if you say "Excuse Me" to some one that they acknowledge you, if someone has to merge that they give you "the wave", if you say thank you to them that they say "You're welcome" and NOT "Yep," or "Mmm hmm" or anything at all. I was raised fiercely to be overly courteous to people, and is more than likely a main cog as to why I ended up in the customer service industry.

I witnessed this on several occasions over the weekend. For one, I went grocery shopping. It was a busy time, and there were several people obviously encompassing many of the aisles, so it was a little slow going. Not to my dismay, I don't mind it at all. There were THREE times throughout the store that I came around a corner and almost ran into someone--not because I was flying around there on two wheels or not paying attention, simply because of the traffic. I said "Excuse me" to all of them, and one person gave me a half smile, the other a kind of annoyed look, and yet another just marched past me as if I wasn't even there. I must admit that by the last time, I was about ready to say a bit louder as the person marched past me "OH..YOU'RE WELCOME"--but I bit my tongue--hard.

To follow that up, I went through a drive thru. The person taking my money for the meal didn't say a single word to me--I had my debit card out waiting upon him coming to the window, he took it from me, came back with it and a receipt moments later, to which I said "Thanks" and he just closed the window. AAAAHHH! What is the deal with people today?

This is an area that I know my faith will help me and continue to reinforce the habits that I was taught from a young age on--no matter what, even if you are having a bad day, even if you have something that just made you very angry, it gives ZERO reason to not be courteous to someone. Jesus had many people spit on him, beat him severely, mock him, and yet he loved them all--and showed them the courtesy that they deserved simply for being human beings--despite how nasty they were.

And this is not even close to happening to me--they didn't treat me out and out like garbage, but it still hurts to think that people just don't have the simplest "responses" that we should have ingrained in us from day one--do unto others. It again gives me perspective about how great Jesus Christ is and the benevolence that God has for us--he not only gives us common courtesy, but he allows us to spit all over his word, ignore his requests, and even go in the opposite direction for our own selfish wants. And not only does he give us courtesy, he loves us more. I continue to be humbled by this example and yet ashamed at mankind on many occasions as to their indiscretions at just simply being "nice"--not sugary, just NICE.

Are there certain pet peeves that you have like this that drive you crazy? How do you deal with these peeves and at the same time try to honor your faith in God?

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