INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES AND ANECDOTES ~ Common Courtesy ~ November 27, 2011 by Dolores ayotte

“Courteous people learn courtesy from the discourteous.” 

Does this quote from the book ”Veil of Roses” by Laura Fitzgerald make any sense to you? It sure does to me. Common courtesy or common decency can be as uncommon as common sense.  As you can see, I’m full of oxymorons today. What I am actually trying to say is this…when I witness people being rude or unkind to others, it really gets my goat.   As soon as I observe such unacceptable behavior I always do a self-check. I almost bend over backwards to treat people with even more kindness than I normally do.

There is no way that I want to behave in such a discourteous or disrespectful way.  In essence, I  immediately become even more courteous and behave the exact opposite of the negative behavior I may have just observed. Therefore, the above quote may actually be true in many instances. My husband and I have a couple of cute expressions of our own. When we observe bad behavior my husband will often say, “if I ever act like that, please let me know” or “remind me ‘not’ to act like that”. What do you think? Do you also bend over backwards to ‘not’ act the same discourteous way that you may have witnessed?