The Boil on the Gluteus Maximus of Society

At some point in my life, I said I would never:

1. Need a personal computer in my home. Ha.
2. Teach again -- here I am.
   
3. Have a blog -- ditto #2.

Why do people feel the need to do this? Could it be attention surplus syndrome? (I don’t really think that, but I had to find an excuse to link to this article.) People used to keep honest-to-goodness journals, thoughts and tidbits recorded on tangible paper for all posterity. I will not say that anything done on a computer will be kept for all posterity -- unless, of course, it's something that could one day be potentially damaging to your reputation or horribly embarrassing. Then, yep, it will definitely be around long after the roaches die out.

Was thinking about people's life themes that sort of define them. For example, the caustic Dr. Gregory House approaches life from the standpoint that everybody lies. I wouldn't say this is a theme of mine, necessarily, because there are other things that define me that are much more important than this, but one of my approaches to life is that I tend to trust people until given a reason not to. I generally tend to LIKE people until given a reason not to. Usually the “reason” manifests itself as an unmitigated show of selfishness or laziness. Boy, does that look harsh in brown and beigee. But how else to explain:

1. Litter. FIND A TRASH CAN. In the course of a day’s errands daughter and I can generate some trash in the car – straw wrappers, napkins, gum wrappers, empty cups,bags, receipts, etc. If it’s small, it goes in my purse to be thrown away that evening IN A TRASH CAN. If it’s big (hold on here, I know this is a novel concept for some) I keep it until I can put it IN A TRASH CAN. Honestly, what is so hard about that? Some people just seem to think they’re too good to ride around with an empty cup in their car (or a cigarette butt, don’t get me started on those), or they’re in such a hurry to get into the store that they can’t be troubled to walk 10 feet out of their way to the trash can on the sidewalk, so down goes the gum wrapper in the parking lot. You know, I don’t really know anyone who is so special that I would embrace their right to litter. And if I knew someone who WAS that special, whatever standing I had assigned to them in my mind would be immediately negated by throwing their trash on the ground. Along those lines, I came across an article today that describes yet another negative impact of Mexicans illegally crossing our borders. If they can’t even trouble to clean up after themselves on the way in, exactly how is it that they make good uninvited guests?
   
2. Failing to signal for turns or lane changes. Hint: that car cost many thousands of dollars. It has several little neat compartments and cubbyholes. Open one of them, just in front of where the front passenger sits. You’ll find a manual that will tell you how to operate the turn signals. What? You didn’t know it was included with the Urban Commando Package? Guess what -- even the base model Yugo (that I swear had a passenger seat as an option) was equipped with turn signals.
   
3. And WHAT is up with the parking spaces these days? It is as though everybody but me got a memo stating that the white lines in the parking lot are now only a suggestion and, like matters of morals these days, are to be constructed to mean whatever you want them to mean. Silly me, I’m still taking pains to make sure I’m parked evenly and straight between them. Last week I watched as an elderly gentleman in a mini-van pulled into the space beside me (ignoring the 486 other empty spaces) so tightly that he had to contort his body to wriggle out of the door that he was only able to open about 8 inches. I had to fold down his rear-view mirror to be able to walk between our cars. I have dozens of other incidents to relate but I guess we all do, unless one of the “we” happens to be the dim bulb that actually commits these egregious parking faux pas and will claim to have no clue. I guess I should at least give some folks credit for parking, more or less, in designated parking areas and not in a fire lane or wherever happens to be convenient for them, parking lot or not. Apparently it’s not a phenomenon that only I have noticed. In a Google image search for examples of bad parking, most of the results returned were part of someone’s blog.
   
4. Bumper stickers, billboards, and t-shirts in public that are emblazoned with crude, vulgar, crass images or words. Yes, I know all about the First Amendment, thank you very much, and I will support anyone’s right to be able to say whatever they want. However, common decency and a good grandmother’s smack of common sense should dictate that you don’t put nasty words or pictures where they will easily be seen by children or offend the sensibilities of decent people. While we’re at it, girls (and women), bra straps are supposed to go UNDER the clothes, breasts are supposed to be contained INSIDE said bra and clothing, and no, I really don’t want to see your thong or your tattoo. Guess what…about 98% of the rest of the world doesn’t want to see them, either.
5. Leaving the table at a fast food restaurant in a disgusting mess.
6. Any kind of radio or CD noise played loudly enough that people four cars down can hear it. And I start seething when the offender is sitting in a parking lot with windows rolled down blaring whatever he loosely defines as "music." Most of the time it's nasty. And the driver has created a parking spot just for himself totally oblivious to the "parking suggestion" lines painted on the ground.
7. And don't even get me started on the glut of cell phone rudeness that now permeates society.
   

Selfish, selfish, selfish. Courtesy to others, both known and unknown to us, is truly a lost art. People are all about themselves these days. I really don’t have a fancy or eloquent way to state it otherwise. Too many in our society are just boorish, selfish, and rude. It is a poor reflection on our culture and does not bode well for our future. History has validated, time and time again, the broken window theory. While the theory was intended to make a case for the relationship between small, seemingly petty vandalism and increased crime, it’s not much of a stretch to see that the same principle applies to the behaviors of a society. Little things that used to be commonplace surprise me now, as they have become increasingly rare: tossing up a hand in thanks when I let you pull out onto the highway from the side street; going in the right-hand door so as to not cause a confuzzelation with me, who actually is using the right-hand door coming out; a clerk truly looking me in the eye and giving a genuine greeting and thanks when I’m conducting business. As the little things go, they will be missed less and less and then bigger courtesies will slide, soon to be followed by common sense and decency. We seem to have forgotten the art of being gracious in both giving and receiving, and it is a major blow to the sense of order and goodness in our world.

Go do something nice for society. Let your actions show that you're aware this beautiful world does not revolve around you.

Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, or desire his delicacies;…You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten and waste your compliments. – Proverbs 23:6,8