Don't you just want to say "What the *&^%?" sometimes; it is not just because I was born and raised in New Jersey, it is not just because I have a feisty, sassy attitude sometimes, it is more then that. As I have worked my entire life to be awake, aware, compassionate and loving, there are just times that I look at the humans who are co-existing around me and I have to scratch my head and say REALLY?
      Oh by the way, Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Yep - it has been that long. Okay, let me get back to my rant. . .
      I'm sorry, maybe it is presumptuous of me, but when I have just spent money in a store or restaurant and the individual who has taken my money doesn't look me in the eye or say thank you - I want to shout out, "REALLY."
      Of course, I could share an extremely logical and shared sense of outrage about something like the Sandy Hook Shooting in Connecticut but as grievous as that incident clearly was, it is the exception to our living time on earth. The things that I am talking about here are the things that happen day in and day out. The things that desenitize us to being more and being PRESENT.
      Being ignored, unappreciated and sometimes spoken to rudely seems to be a day to day, common place experience. And the sad thing is, often the store or restaurant owner doesn't even see it. And I want to know why not? Why are you not watching over your business and teaching your employees. In addition I can't help believing that social graces would greatly help the bottom dollar.
       I don't know, call me old-fashioned, but I LIKE manners and politeness and common courtesies and I am not apologizing for it. Oh, that's another thing that I like - apologies. Not because something someone did makes them the scum of the earth but because it acknowledges that they are aware of their impact upon you - even if it was unavoidable.
      Hell, I'm from the northeast, rude is practically a sport here, but that still doesn't make it okay. Have you ever been in Canada or just around a group of Canadians - talk about polite. They are the politest people I have ever been in the company of although it is so much though, it feels almost fake - not really - well, maybe. Ha, don't want to offend but that was my experience.
      Okay, I'm almost over it but you know me I have to end on a high note. Let's change this, let's look each other in the eye, let's get back to basic courtesies and holding doors and writing notes ON PAPER. Let's acknowledge each other for the large and the small things, let's be the change and for Pete's sake, let's teach our children well.