2003 Soap Box Archives

Kindness 03/28/03

It seems as time goes by we get a little more impatient, a little
quicker to anger and a little less kind to each other.

You see it everyday from the guy who cuts you off in the passing lane to
the teenager who works at the hamburger place who shoves your change at
you without so much as a thank you.

Being polite is so much easier than being abusive and abrasive. It not
only makes people like to be around you, it’s just better on your blood
pressure.

Sometimes a kind word can mean more than we’ll ever know to someone who
is having a bad day. Even a simple smile can be uplifting to someone
who hasn’t seen one in a while.

I remember a more genteel time when manners and courtesy were the order
of the day, when children showed respect for their elders, a day when
corporal discipline was universal in the raising of a child, and no one
dared to talk back to a school teacher, and a man wouldn’t even think of
using an off color word in the presence of a lady.

What happened? Well in my opinion, manners and courtesy are just two
more victims of an overly permissive society.

Good people stood by and let one pitiful atheist have prayer removed
from our public school system, and you can say what you want to about
that but we didn’t have have murders in our schools back in those days.
Coincidence? I think not.

We didn’t take it seriously when they banished the nativity scenes and
Ten Commandments from public places.

Belligerence, arrogance and downright filth spew forth from our
television sets, the bottom line being the criteria, thus justifying
Beavis and Butthead and their ilk.

My e-mail screen is inundated with unsolicited offers of hard core
pornography and just the language they use to tout this garbage is
enough to make an old salt blush.

We have become a vulgar, undisciplined society standing docilely by
while little by little any semblance of decency disappears from the
American scene.

However, we can’t be responsible for the whole world, but we can be
responsible for the little bit of space we occupy and we can make our
space a better place. We can filter what comes into our space and edit
what goes out of it.

I believe that kindness is contagious and smiles are catching.

Were you ever around an individual who was so up and so positive that it
just made you feel good to be in their presence?

Did you ever know someone who just radiated good feelings and the first
thing you know you’re smiling and laughing and having a fine old time?

It all goes back to the golden rule of treating other people the way we
want to be treated.

It’s so easy, try it. When you go to work today, speak to that person
who never speaks to you. Just a simple “good morning” will do, smile at
the old neighborhood grouch accompanied by something like,”How are you
today?”. Let someone in line in front of you or give some homeless
person a couple of dollars.

Smile at the first ten people you come in contact with and speak
courteously to everyone you see.

Do it for a few days and you might be surprised at the results.

Pray for our troops.

What do you think?

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

 

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