by Marlena Elias
September 16, 2000
I am a polite person. There, I said it. My brothers and sisters think I'm nuts. My boyfriend had no concept of "HTD" before we met. My Father used to get aggrivated because while I was being polite 4 or 5 people would walk through the door I was holding and DAD would be kept waiting. So fine, I hold the door, why does this warrant an essay? I'll tell you why:
Common decency is dead. Lost forever. Gone from our culture. There have been points in my young life that I have reflected on the fact that I used to be a nice person. Over the past 10 years I've noticed that I'm not as nice as I am capable of being. I have a girlfriend that complains about my striking up conversations with strangers (Tricia, you know who you are). So I tried to squelch this part of my personality. It didn't make me any happier; being rude and letting doors close in people's faces didn't make my day better.
So the cycle continues; waves of basic human decency come over me. Now that I live in Dallas, where people are supposed to be friendlier, my politeness has almost come to a complete stop. There is nothing worse than fulfilling the stereotype of being a horrible "Northerner", which I'm not. People in North Dallas are just not that nice and certainly are not polite. I have held doors for people and had at LEAST 10 people go through the door without even noticing that I was holding the door. Ethan has had to grab me and force me to leave my post. Incidences where there has been mass rudeness is what has poisoned my politeness.
I recently had the opportunity to spend roughly 29 hours in the Chicago suburb of Lisle. It was like I had gone back to the Motherland. It's not that Chicagoans are the nicest people in the world, but when you're kind to people, you at least get some acknowledgement!
The question then becomes, do I hold the door to get a "thank you" or do I hold the door because I have manners? I'm thinking it's a little of both. A little nod would be sufficient for Pete's sake, I'm not asking for a cash gift!
The choice becomes mine to continue to hold doors for people and say hello to strangers. This is who I am and who I like being. Going to Lisle for a brief stint was like a shot in the arm. I am a Northerner and I am polite. No matter how awful people seem to be, we all deserve some kindness. I consider this to be my job in life. <EM>
