Fortune Cookie Friday: Cultivate Courtesy
Well, hello there, reader. Thank you so much for dropping by and perusing my post. If you don’t mind, I would like your opinion on a scenario. If you’re are interested, please consider reading.
Imagine you are at the grocery store. You have a shopping cart full of paper products, produce, and perishables. You approach one of the long checkout lines just as someone else does. You notice that they only have a handful of items in their basket. What do you do? Who goes first?
Situations like this frequently happen in busy stores, especially during the holidays. Usually, people are polite and allow another person to go ahead of them. Of course, there are those incidents such as during Black Friday sales that make the evening news, but for the most part, we resolve the situation without a major dispute.
I would like to thank epigrammatic writer Christian Nestell Bovee, 1820-1904 for today’s fortune. It and many others can are in his book, Intuitions and Summaries of Thought.
It is simple courtesies, like allowing someone to go first, that sweeten life. Nice actions make life better for others. We can be courteous by complimenting someone on a job well done, making room for someone at a public table, or even sending someone a thank you note.
But there is more to courtesy than just being polite. We have to treat everyone amiably, even those that we don’t know, don’t like, or get under our skin. We shouldn’t harbor resentment and try to get even. Instead, we should turn the other cheek.
People that are kind, considerate, and poised even in the hardest of times are cultivating their courtesy. It may be difficult to show that level of civility, but with a little bit of practice, we can grow into better people.
We should be wary though. Mr. Bovee noted that excessive courtesy is “almost as objectionable as a scant measure of it.” We don’t want to appear like we are fawning over people. If we are going to cultivate our courtesy, we need to remain sincere.
November 13th is Kindness Day, a special day set aside for us to practice being generous and considerate. There are many ways to be courteous. We can give to the poor, or hold open a door, but why should we wait for one special day? We should practice courtesy daily.
Consider being courteous to those around you to make them feel better, and consider cultivating that courtesy to become a better person yourself.
