Wednesday Morning Ramble

Good morning, everyone.  It's another bright and sunny day here in Brooklyn.  I've not been out in it, but it is quite warm.  I was up most of the night with a tummy bug...some little virus has been going around.  So, I took off today.  I'm feeling somewhat better now, and actually a wee bit hungry. 

I was thinking about something that happened on the subway last night.  A young woman got up to get off at her stop, and dropped her water bottle.  It went rolling down towards the middle of the car..unopened thankfully.  Well, a gentleman seated across from me put his book down and started to get up to retrieve it for her, but she was already headed in the direction to pick it up.  So, he reached over and held onto the subway doors so they wouldn't close.  No one else moved to help her...only this man...and if he hadn't held the door for her, she would have ended up traveling to the next stop and having to come back.  And what does this 'lovely' young woman do? She pick up her bottle and exits the train.  Not only did she not acknowledge the man with a simple 'thank you', she didn't even glance at him.  Just strutted out of the train like his kindness had been owed to her. 

Really makes you wonder.  What is the world coming to when such simple gestures of kindness such as "Thank you", "Please", and "You're welcome are no longer practiced.  Do parents no longer teach their children manners, or is it that the children have forgotten them?  Or, maybe they just don't care.  I think one of my biggest gripes is when I go out of my way to hold the door for someone, and they not only don't thank me, but squeeze through without taking the door from me...treating me as if it's MY job to hold the door for them.  Just think of what a better place this world would be if everyone was kind and considerate to the next person...and it all starts with one person.  So, fret I may, but I will continue to hold doors, I will continue to say "Pleae", "Thank you", and "You're welcome".  I will even continue to smile and say "Good morning" for if I am able to touch just ONE person, and that one person touches another...and then another...a new and kinder world will have begun.

And I would like to close today with a few words about Renee.  I didn't get to know her well, not as well as many of you, and I hadn't followed her blog for long...but what I did find there was a brave and loving woman, a woman who taught us all the meaning of strength and fighting back, not taking things lying down.  We will all miss her dearly.  The following poem is one of my favorites.

Do not stand at my grave and weep

I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am 1,000 winds that blow

I am the diamond glints on the snow.

I am the sun on ripened grain

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush

I am the swift uplifting rush.

Of quiet birds in circled light

I am the soft star that shines at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry

I am not there; I did not die.

--Anonymous--