Five Minute Friday :: Polite

• Five Minute Friday :: Polite Linkup

The first Five Minute Friday for March is another instance of the picture Kate provided being so lovely I had no choice but to participate this week. I'm politely responding by including two of my California golden poppy pictures. The short version of why only two out of my dozens of photos of golden poppies? Part of being polite is not making a conversation or a situation all about you, the speaker or actor, but doing the best you can to defer to others who may be there.

Our host Kate's report of a not polite kindergarten girl (in church) was sad. You can make the excuse parents are overwhelmed, and parents are overwhelmed, but teaching politeness from day one and enforcing it along the way is doable in almost every case and has the immense benefit of making a parent's job easier along the way.


Polite

All these years later, I still recall some quotes from our Conference MInister's newsletter columns "way back when," as I always loved hearing my grandmother say. One month he wrote, "Kindness is love in action." (For people in independent or unaffiliated churches, a judicatory such as a conference, synod, presbytery, diocese is an accountability and oversight structure.)

Since kindness is love in action, politeness is an important aspect of kindness. Politeness is about not causing discomfort to any person of any age in any situation. (For example, Kate told us how she gently suggested to the little girl how to politely reword her demands into requests.) Being polite entails being familiar with social conventions and habits. Those manners help us situate ourselves – and our kids – in the larger society where people maintain certain ways of being, of speaking, of dressing, of interacting with others.

Does that place all of us within a certain establishment, or "established order?" To an extent it does. It also helps provide a way to connect with others so they can hear our opinions, plans, and ideas without needing to cut through extraneous body and language clutter. Because being polite is part of being kind.

Politeness is part of our behavioral and cultural vocabulary. Being polite helps create a civil society where everyone does their part in fulfilling the social contract.

What are your favorite polite practices?

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