Good manners. It's always been important to me to remember the little ditty my mother (the one who reared me, not the bio mother who deserted me without ever looking at me) ---anyway--the little ditty my mother basically branded on my fanny:
We love you, and we want other people to love you, too.
What that meant was this: Always be polite and use your best manners and people will love you, or like you, or at least enjoy your company, or at worst tolerate your presence.
Do you know what? Not necessarily so. HAH.
It has come to my attention that I can do all the right things and be as proper and polite as can be and say "please" and "thank you" and make sure the person with whom I deal or am depending on for help and am causing inconvenience knows how much I appreciate it....and BAM!!!! It backfires.
Have I been duped? Good manners are considered to be "pretentiousness." Is that even a word? My attempt to show gratitude (which has been genuine, by the way) has been basically flung back in my face.
It's beginning to dawn on me that some of the words I heard and took to be concern and care might have been something else. In other words, I've been giving credit where it wasn't necessarily due.
Lesson to me: Get real. Quit being a sap. Sometimes people aren't as noble as you'd like them to be. Or need them to be.
In the middle of the night, Texas time.
Shawn
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