treat me like you did the night before

I'm a common courtesy contradiction.

The other day I was leaving my apartment building, and was astounded by a simple action. I live on the third floor, so I have to descend a few flights of indoor stairs to get to the door that leads out to the parking lot. I locked my door and started down the steps, moving at my usual brisk pace. When I came around the final corner, I saw that an elderly gentleman was holding the door for me.

When I say elderly, I mean ELDERLY. Thinning silver hair, deep-set wrinkles, hunched shoulders, outdated-and-ill-fitting mustard yellow suit, leaning heavily on a scratched wooden cane. He was OLD and practically HANDICAPPED and he heard someone coming, so he held the door for them. I was the only one around at the time, so he wasn't just holding it for his wife or someone he saw coming in from the parking lot. He heard footsteps from upstairs, which can only mean a person descending to exit the building, so he held the door. It's practically melodramatic for me to be writing about such a small event, and I'm sure he thought nothing of it, but I was just thinking about common courtesy the other day, only to be blown away by this tiny old man who took the extra time to hold the door, when it was probably going to take him ten more minutes to hobble to his comfy armchair and put the cane down for the day.

Now, when I say I am a common courtesy contradiction, I believe I share the affliction of being a hypocrite with the vast majority of the population. I will hold doors for people, and make eye contact, and smile at strangers, and wait for people at crosswalks, and say "please" and "thank you" quite frequently when at a restaurant or somesuch. However, I also tend to tailgate if you're driving ten under the speed limit and I'm late for work, because lord knows that makes me personally want to speed up, when someone is so close it's like they're driving in my bloody trunk [this is when we all laugh and point fingers at Holly and say things like "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WOMAN, CONTROL YOUR ROAD RAGE!"].

I went to a friend's wedding this weekend, which was beautiful and perfect and basically gobs of fun. Upon leaving the reception, Daniel and I were walking out into the beautiful night - my feet were killing me, of course, from the fabulous peep-toe heels I was sporting all night - and we passed a woman talking loudly to someone in a van pulled up to the sidewalk. They were having some trouble coordinating how to load some boxes of glassware into the van when the cart kept trying to roll away on rickety wheels. I took in the situation in a glance and was all set to keep walking, when Daniel released his loose grip on my hand and immediately went over to the woman, asking if she needed assistance. It was quite apparent that this woman was taken aback by such a kind offer from a random stranger.

I never thought of myself as an inconsiderate person before. I always say "Oh, I'm sorry!" or "Excuse me, sir" if someone bumps into me in a public place - even if it was their fault, not mine. I cannot fathom those who just bump into others and say nothing or ignore people who serve them in such positions as drive-through fast food attendants, or waitresses, or bank tellers, and refuse to say thank you to those working such menial jobs. I became more and more aware of the overwhelming rudeness present in our society when I started waitressing. People who don't say those magic words you learn as a little kid, who just hold out their glass and give you a look when they want a refill, who leave ten percent tip or less because lord knows the person serving them doesn't have bills to pay or children to support whilst working eight hour shifts for $2.13 an hour. I'm not trying to turn this into a rant at all; I'm just wondering where the concept of common courtesy has gone. I had a table on Sunday consisting of parents and four kids, between the ages of about ten and fifteen, I would say, and they were the most well-mannered group of that age children I have ever waited on. They all spoke to me clearly when ordering or asking for refills, smiled genuinely, and thanked me sincerely. It was just so refreshing to see that some parents still attempt to instill such values in their offspring.

Don't lose hope in the manners of humanity yet. There are still random acts of kindness out there.

On that note, I shall now phone in an order of delicious sesame chicken to prepare for the season premiere of The Big Bang Theory tonight on CBS. If you haven't seen it and appreciate smart humour and dorky guys in awkward situations, then I highly recommend it.