I have good manners. Truly. I say please, thank you, excuse me, in all the right places. I don't litter, I hold doors open for who ever is behind me. I greet store clerks cordially and I don't snap at wait-staff, even when they suck. I even, heaven help me, say "have a nice day" on a regular basis. That's all good, right? Sometimes, I cringe at my own finely tuned social graces and tidy manners. Whenever I find myself engaging in small talk - or worse, when I initiate small talk - there's a part of me that's screaming or gagging. But on the outside all you see is a perfunctory smile nailed to my face, and possibly my head bobbing stupidly up and down.
It's not that I want to be mean or unfriendly - I just hate small talk and the banality inherent to presenting a civilized demeanor. As Elaine said on Seinfeld, "Why does everything have to have a social component?" then she pretended to be deaf in order to not have to make small talk with a car service driver. I totally get that. I'm sure I'd go to hell for pretending to be deaf - not that I would do such a thing (ummm, I probably wouldn't do it), but I get it.
1 comment:
MSN:
Glad to hear we've yet another thing in common...
This is just what I've noticed over the years, and that's the fact that people (in general) have honestly LOST the ability to engage in social intercourse (not THAT kind...LOL)
We barely remember how to write a letter, and with all the "contrivances' we have at out disposal today (and many SHOULD be disposed of) we've lost the fine art of CONVERSATION.
Along with that goes manners, unfortunately.
When we cease to interact as we were intended to, we lose a lot more of ourselves in the process.
(Like I said...just my 2 cents.)
Very good post.
Have a great weekend.
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