Civility and kindness

I drive Jason and I to work every morning  and am amazed that people on the roads can be so rude.  Is it really so hard to believe that not blocking an intersection would be an act of kindness to those needing to turn in to the road?  Yet every few days I will have someone right on my bumper honking at me to close the gap.  We are all stopped at the same res light, closing the gap will not change that.  So there I sit and I see the people turning in smiling and waving.  I feel good about my decision to make the person behind me accrue bad karma.

When I went to college at Tusculum we had a competency program and I LOVED IT.  The competency office was not in charge of your grades, your placements, or anything academic really.  They were there to make sure you measured up to the overall standards of the school in a variety of areas i.e. math, writing and humanities.  I cannot remember what all was under humanities but I remember civility was there foremost.  I was worried for my first semester about how civility would be measured.  But I really did not need to worry for there were many opportunities to be polite or courteous or kind to people.  I should have been more worried about the writing.

I should not have worried because I was raised to always be polite and courteous to everyone.  Even the silly manic man honking behind me.  I will smile and wave if ever I shall leave a gap for him to use to get to work/home/play.

 I decided long ago that one act of simple kindness to anyone will be worth my time.

 

ci·vil·i·ty  

Noun Formal politeness and courtesy in behavior or speech. Polite remarks used in formal conversation.

Synonyms courtesy - politeness - comity - urbanity - complaisance kind·ness   Noun The quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. A kind act. Synonyms kindliness - goodness - favor - favour - affability