Courtesy

Courtesy is important to me, even though I am not always courteous, I respect the practice of it.  It is a challenge and a responsibility.  It should be taught in schools, churches and families.  It should be a part of training programs for salespersons.   I know of nobody who does things "right" all of the time.  Nevertheless, courtesy is something we should all strive for.  I know of people who talk of world peace as if it were something easily attainable.  Some of those same people cannot get along with neighbors and relatives. A long time ago somebody told me: "Some people say they love the world, but in reality, they hate their neighbor."  Well, are they doing their part to achieve world peace?  Are they doing their part to make this world a better place in which to live?  My advice:  Be courteous.  I have stated this before in other blogs, and I will probably state it again sometime:  "If you want to make a better world, make yourself a better person.  By doing this, you have automatically made a better world."   Recently, I read a quote made by John Walter Wayland.  Wayland was a professor, writer and chairman of the history department at James Madison University in Virginia until 1931.  It tends to sum up what a good attitude is.  It tends to sum up those things that would contribute toward respect for others and being courteous toward them.


"The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe."