Grace and Civility

We used to take grace and civility for granted. Now, as we progress - is that the right word? We find it so rare, so elusive, so precious, that when it presents itself, we are startled. What does this say about us? Why have we given ourselves permission to dismiss others?
Civility might have died when our lives reached warp speed, maybe when we sat down at the computer and ponded the desk because downloading something from the Internet took three seconds instead of 0.3 seconds. I know I grow testy when it takes me ten whole minutes  to do genealogical research on the Internet even though it would have taken me six months by mail.
Is it that we don't have the time to treat one another as human beings? Or our we just too absorbed with our own problems? We worry about money. We worry about being downsized into oblivion. We worry about health. We worry about our children. We worry if we're going to die in peace or by some lunatic's bullet.
Maybe we're so worried that we've forgotten the common decency our parents taught us. Or maybe we've rejected it.
Here's a promise from me to me. Either I promise to buy a faster modem for my computer or I stop pounding the desk. I've started following the advice of a woman who wrote to my column saying that she makes it a point to let someone in ahead of her on the highway everyday. Great idea.

by Jeffrey Page cited in the Bergen Record and published in Leadership...with a common touch, November 16, 1999, Pages 18-19