DETROIT – This is not a discussion about politics. This is an article focused on good old-fashioned manners that seem to be going out of style.
I am talking about the basic use of the words please, thank you, you are welcome and excuse me. You do not hear those as much anymore.
We do not routinely see the simple gestures of kindness that, back in the day, we thought of as common courtesy. Many of these gestures are not so common now.
Have we gotten too busy, too distracted or simply too focused on ourselves?
I am thinking about the person who gets in the 10-item line at the grocery store with a full cart; who talks on a cell phone during the movie; who leaves paper towels all over the floor and water splashed across the bathroom counter; the "I will not let you into my lane driver" and the guy in the fast-food line who starts his order with,“Yeah, gimme a...”
Does any of this sound familiar?
This past week, I visited Holy Name Catholic School in Birmingham to do a story on their etiquette academy, which is basically a class on manners. The class is taught by Danielle Kovachevich, a certified business etiquette instructor. Danielle’s day job is teaching professional adults how to be polite, which these days is no small challenge.
She is teaching the young people at the school about first impressions, eye contact, listening skills and a host of other polite behaviors that are losing their place in our cyberspeed culture.
Kovachevich says manners are about how you make other people feel and the golden rule still applies. We should treat others the way we would like to be treated.
The biggest challenge is that we all think it is the other guy who is insensitive, careless, too loud or just plain rude.
More likely, we should all take a look in the mirror before pointing some place else. Kovachevich puts some of the blame on social media, which is more antisocial than social.
We let our fingers do the talking and texting is a poor substitute for actual human contact that includes eye contact, facial expressions and the simple cues of body language that tell us how the other person feels.
Are we losing the simple manners that help us get along with each other?
Think about it, please.