Courtesy

Courtesy

There are some very courteous people in this world. Of course there are lots of discourteous people. Some are over courteous. Some are just sleazy.

The other day, I was walking home and came to street corner. The street had two lanes. The driver in the lane closest to me waved me on to cross. He clearly had the right of way. Yeah, he was being nice to me.

But I stood on the corner and did not go. He kept looking at me mouthing go. He was being nice. But the driver in the car next to him was revving her engine and raced right through. There was no way I was going to cross the street. One person was going to let me go. While the other would have made me road kill.

Let’s talk about another topic. Is it courteous or just plain cleanliness? Perhaps both. I’m hopeful we were all taught to wash our hands prior to leaving the bathroom. Sadly far too many people fail to that. I always do.

Let me point to two stories that should shed some light on this topic. About two years ago, a friend was visiting from the mid-Atlantic region. She brought her kids over to my dwelling. Her then three-year-old boy went to the bathroom. He got very nervous and started asking for the step stool so he could reach the faucet to wash his hands. I don’t have one. I can reach the faucet. He asked me to pick him up. I did. He washed his hands.

Same thing happened several months ago at one of my religious institutions. The cutest little three-year-old girl walked out of the bathroom. She asked for someone to pick her up by the ritual sink, so she could wash her hands. She couldn’t reach the faucet in the ladies room. But knew she had to wash her hands.

This same cutie often yells people at her home and in the shul to use forks when they take food out of the serving dishes to put on their plates. Then she’s reminds people not to eat with their hands. I never got yelled at.

The moral of the story is we could all learn a lot from toddlers. In many cases they are far more grown up than many of us.