First I must tell you that I absolutely ADDOOOORRRREEEEE you. Duh.

Second: You will never be at a loss for being too respectful or too kind.

Seriously, guys do you think a woman would slap you for opening the door for her? If she did, where the hell did you find her? In an Ubercarpool?! Ladies is it painful to say the magic words ” Thank you”. No baby, it’s the opposite. You say thank you, and they remember because thankfulness is sweet. What’s the opposite of sweet? Sour. YUK!.  LAWWDD, go ahead and run amok in ignorance of humanity and compassion, but what does that say about your character? What does that say about your mama? What does that say to the person who just bent over backward to help you with something they could have easily side-stepped from? It says a lot. Fathoms in the Mariana Trench, a lot. That’s a S*#% load. 

You lose nothing from being generous, polite, and respectful. But it doesn’t go both ways. I personally take rudeness as a marked flaw. That’s because I’m constantly evaluating my own actions. Did I forget to say thank you to Angelea for helping me remember why I deserve better? Did I forget to say thank you to my mother for being the sweetest soul God could have given me? There are so many people who help me. So many people who have offered me their heart on a platter. The heaviness of that realization makes me feel all mushy inside. Not like mash potatoes mushy (nahhhh) , more like pretty pink jello mushy after your spoon has had its way with it (ART!).

But also, being good to other human beings makes them happy. When someone is polite to me I want to squeeze them (can you imagine if my emotions had no filters? trouble!) I once remarked to a man, ” Would it hurt you to be a little more polite to me?” His response: GIRRLLLLLL, it’s 2018! You out here trying to be an independent woman, and all of a sudden you want me to open doors and take you on long walks in the park. When the hell did I say I was an independent woman (which I am, suckaa)? And what the hell does that have to do with walks in the park? I think walks in the park are nice, it’s true. But that’s irrelevant to how I would like to be treated kindly, generously, and in a respect that you should want in return. Can you imagine if everyone just ignored everyone? No hugs, no parting kisses, no remorse. No, ” Damn that was nice as hell, you just made my day” Life would be rough.

Onooo, couldn’t live in a world like that. HELLS no.

It all started when I was a child. I went to visit an elderly woman at the hospital. I was maybe 6 or 7 years old. There was a family next to me and as they greeted each other a boy about my age went up to his aging grandmother and bowed. Then he hugged her. I stared at him the whole time like he was an alien who had taken over the body of a blond-haired boy with freckles and blue eyes. Weirdo. But I was in awe of the weirdo. At that young age, I saw his respect for his elders and I also saw the respect the elders had for him. He went from weirdo to the respectable respected. I have no idea who the kid was but I do wonder what he might be doing nowadays… Maybe he became spiderman? Or maybe he’s in prison….Nahhhhh! He’s probably all about them spidey senses. Watch your back, villains!

You could lose a lot for being ungrateful, rude, and a complete prick. Friendships and family have been torn apart because graciousness was left behind in the dust like a animals skeleton which makes you wonder, how did this happen? We don’t know how it happened. We just know one day the streets were clean and today… Someone ran over a dog and didn’t even bother to pick it up.

Giving thanks takes some effort. But so does waking up in the morning, brushing your teeth, putting your makeup on, bla bla bla. All that work. Would it be so much EXTRA to add a dash of courtesy to your life? If it does, then by God you must be as busy as Trump himself.

Rude ones, keep away. I’m in this life for the goodness.

xoxox

Lindsay Reva