Manners
This entry was posted on 8/17/2006 1:14 PM and is filed under manners.
MEDITATION ON OUR MANNERS!
We are in a world of trouble! What do we know about good manners? Good manners are, by definition, harmonious with good sense and good taste, and should not need elaborate cultivation. Good manners are always effortless, and never mannered, because that is to call attention to oneself and one’s affections, which themselves are usually signs of insecurity.
The truth is that we have a difficulty in our country today, and have had for a long time, with good manners. They have largely been discarded. Often thinking about bad manners can be more fun than defining good manners, so perhaps we should cite some negative examples. I do not want to go out on a limb, but I do think there are some things that are simply “not done” – which means, in our world they are routine. I am not going to say that you should not talk with your mouth full or that you should keep your elbows off the table. May I suggest that keeping your word is something to abide by? Today, the repudiation of agreements freely entered into, followed by bald-faced lying about it, is a phenomenon I now find less baffling than I did formerly, having experienced it so many times. We seem to have lost the ability to keep our word. This fall from having manners is saying to everyone else around you: “I don’t give a damn about you.”
