As I’m heading home, returning to the Midwest reminds me that without civility there is no civilization. The politeness you project to the people you meet is essential to living in harmony, regardless of how fake it is.
Chatting with a waitress is probably the easiest example of this. Last night, I went out with friends and simply asked about her necklace. It was a triquetra, a simple three ovals interconnected together, which was an old symbol of the Trinity. She wore it because she liked the TV show Charmed.
Now I watched the show, it was… Okay. I enjoyed it in TNT when I was waiting for the show I really wanted to see to come on. Did I tell the waitress any of this? Hell no. I asked the question, she answered it, it’s not her fault I didn’t like the show as much as her.
When the three kids were riding their bicycles in the middle of a major road and would not move over, I could have got really close and freaked them out to teach them to be safe… But I’m not an a-hole. Even when they passed me and jeered at me, I didn’t get the clutch and chase after them to prove that 2 tons beats one hundred pounds every time.
Because in the end, they’re either going to grow out of it or grow into big a-holes and the lesson would be wasted. Which is why one of my Maxim’s comes from Winston Churchill, “When you have to hang a man, it costs you nothing to be polite.”
Do you agree? Do some people need to be yelled at or do you bend to the side of civility? Let me know in the comments below!
Albigensia Press 
I’m probably too polite!