Do good manners and being nice still matter is something I have been thinking about lately. Christmas and the holiday season maybe the reason I have been giving good manners so much thought. It started a couple of weeks back when I wrote an email and copied my Dad on it. He wrote back that the email was “perfect”. I pondered that as it was just a simple paragraph asking someone for follow-up on something with my usual good manners. I wrote back that I had a way with words and it was called good manners. That began the thought process of whether good manners still mattered and whether they were becoming so rare that even my Dad remarked on the nice “tone” of my email.
Christmas is a great time to think about this because no matter your particular religious persuasion, Christmas seems to bring out better manners and people going out of their way to be nice. I am going to stop right here and tell all the naysayers that are being run over by aggressive shopping carts; people driving more erratically, beating each other out of parking spots and woefully forgetting to look before backing up that you maybe choosing to see the negative. Just maybe.
I am choosing to focus on all the little nice things I am witnessing and the good manners people are exhibiting with politeness, kindness and well wishes. I believe good manners and being nice do still matter and not just at Christmas and the holidays. Is it so difficult to end an email or text with well wishes? Is it so difficult to be nice to people on Facebook and live by the “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” adage? Can we tweet pleasantries in 140 characters instead of being rude and cruel? Are please and thank you or “no, you go ahead” so very challenging? Don’t get me wrong, I still have to work on it when I feel like throwing good manners and being nice out the proverbial window.
I am hoping that good manners and being nice will catch on like a new fad, maybe even go viral. Imagine if Christmas was just the beginning of a New Year filled with niceties, well wishes and positive reinforcement. What kind of a year would that be?
Wishing everyone a joyous nice holiday season filled with good manners!