Revisiting graciousness, politeness, and cordiality



[This is a post from the summer of 2013, with a few edits here and there]

I have been thinking quite a lot this summer about qualities like: graciousness, politeness, cordiality. I am reluctant to express a cliché, but it seems we (the collective “we”) are not as cordial as we once were. I suppose there could also be a case made for my just getting older and becoming more aware of the absence of these qualities (although I don’t believe this to be the case).

Let’s just suppose for a moment I am correct and we are living in a time when a simple thank youpleasesincerely, etc. are no longer part of our day-to-day vocabulary. If this is the case, one may wonder…why? Is it our informal means of communicating electronically? Could it be we are living in a climate where one is civil/polite only to those we are trying to impress: those with rank or status?


I don’t have a remedy...one cannot change another’s innate character, if that is the issue.  However, if likeminded people would for a moment consider these qualities and endeavor simply to be a bit more gracious, polite, cordial…well, we could change the world! Or at least our little corner of it.
So my point is this: be more gracious, polite, and cordial. Strive to live with integrity. Our lives can only be enhanced as a result and this new academic year will indeed be, yet again, a time of new beginnings.

Here is a passage from a very early post and although I am literally repeating myself, it remains just as true for me now as when I first penned it.

Each new semester brings with it a new beginning, a “do over” if you will. One can reflect upon the previous semester(s) and decide what worked, what didn’t work, and what worked even though one may be unclear why! This feeling I get (especially as the fall semester approaches) reminds me of how I felt growing up -- a new school year would be on the horizon and I knew it was a time to make changes, to try something new…