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Well
here it is another year. Even better, another century. I know, I know, the
century doesn’t start until the end of the year 2000. Who cares? Not enough to
get your feathers roughed up. Unlike other years, I’m going to make some New
Years resolutions that I think I can live with. I’m already on a diet (it’s
working) and I gave up most of my bad habits years ago. This year I am resolving
to be a better person and try harder to get along with my fellow man. I know
this is quite a shock to you all, but sometimes I’m not a nice guy. I tend to
be sarcastic, impatient and even rude. This must stop. The other day I was
having breakfast at my usual place and some lady come in and ordered a dozen
muffins. The waitress got a box and filled it for. When she went to check out,
the customer said…"I don’t like the way these look, the tops are
crooked." She then proceeded to give the waitress a ration about how ugly
these muffins looked. I wanted to get up and tell her…"Look, lady
there’re just muffins. You eat them. They go inside your stomach and your
stomach doesn’t know if the tops are crooked or not." There simply
wasn’t any rhyme or reason to cause such a commotion over some dumb breakfast
food. This was plain out and out discourteous. Another point. A few weeks ago, I
got up early one morning and drove over to see a cousin. I stopped in a local
national chain to get a cup of coffee. There were 2 older men at the counter,
one at each cash register. Their wives were sitting in a booth about 25 feet
away. The men were yelling to these women what was on the menu. Now, I think
most of us know what we can order at McDonalds for breakfast. That is unless
you’ve been locked up somewhere for the past 25 or so years. "What’s on
a sausage and biscuit, Earl?" One of the ladies yelled? The husband, still
at the counter, kind of reads the entire menu to both of these women.
"Well, they have pancakes, and so on and so on." Everyone here is
getting really tense. Kids are starting to cry. Babies are hungry and these
grown folks are totally oblivious to it all. Here again I showed a great deal of
restraint in not saying something I’d probably have regretted. You’d think
these people had never been out in public before in their lives. Much less to a
fast food place. Why waste everyone’s time if you don’t know what you want
to eat? There are others who do and who are hungry as well. I promise not to be
one of those holding up the lines in the years to come. Last week, I was driving
around and stopped in to visit one of the papers that carry these articles of
mine each week. As we were chatting, one of the people told me about some reader
that had gotten upset over something written in the paper. It was an honest
mistake and probably should have been caught, but wasn’t. Actually, it was
just written kind of strange and gave the reader a mistaken impression of an
event that had happened. I got to thinking about this. You know, newspapers are
put together by people. Not computers. Or at least not at this time. Real, live
people have to read, interpret, and write what happens for us to read it on a
daily basis. Being human, they make what? Yep, that’s right, they make
mistakes. But, if the mistake doesn’t affect you or isn’t concerning you or
your family, then why cause some grief to someone else for no reason? If you
feel led to point out someone’s mistake, then do so with kindness, not anger
or hostility. Over 400 years ago, someone wrote…"You ought to remember
that good manners consist precisely of annoying nobody." So what I should
attempt to achieve in this coming year and for all of the years to come is to be
able to go through life without offending anyone. It means that I must be
patient, kind and not find fault with others. It means that I should take into
consideration that everyone has problems, not just me. It means that I should
smile and be as pleasant as I can to all of those around me at all times. It
means that I have to learn how to teach those who need teaching without yelling,
being sarcastic or condescending. In short, it means that I have to practice
what I preach. I don’t have the right to inflict my negative moods on those
around me. In fact, that word should be infect, not inflict. Our negative
attitudes do infect others not just inflict others. I promise to be a nicer and
more compassionate person in this coming year. I promise to have a better and
more positive attitude about everything, not just the things that affect me.
That’s a big commitment form me. How about you? Thanks for reading these in
1999; I promise to get better in the coming years. Send comments to www.pearyperry.com. |
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