With apologies to The Carpenters, it is a pretty blah type day here in New York, and a Monday to boot, which makes it even worse. On days like this, you don’t feel like doing anything or seeing anybody. You just want to crawl back into bed and sleep the whole day away and start fresh on Tuesday. unfortunately, most of us can’t do that, so we work ourselves through the day somehow and come out the other side. It was a busy weekend so I didn’t really get any writing in. We went to a barbecue Saturday and Michelle wasn’t feeling good yesterday so  I took Sean out of the house for the day so she could relax for a bit. Sean went swimming most of the day (thank you Hausers for taking us in for the afternoon) and we came home, ate dinner, and that was it, so I didn’t really get anything done this weekend and have some work to do now that I keep stalling on. I get up at 5 AM and start working, so I do get a lot done between 5 and 9 so I can do other things in the morning, like this. So let’s get back to Saturday’s question, which was:

What’s a nice thing that you have done for someone recently? Is there something you have done to “pay it forward” recently?

It was a pretty simple question really. I think, for most people, something happens pretty much every day where you do something nice for someone, whether you realize it or not. A lot of times it can be as simple as saying “thank you” to a delivery person or the person at a store, holding a door open for someone or just smiling at somebody as you pass them by. All it takes is something small to do a nice thing for somebody and maybe make their day a little better than it was. Sadly, I think politeness and niceness is something that is really getting lost in the shuffle in today’s world. Everywhere I go, it seems there are more and more people who act and behave rudely and unkind towards others. We have turned into such a rushed society; everyone is in a hurry to get someplace that they think is life or death and they want you to move out of their way so they can get there faster. You see it all the times in stores. People will push you out of the way or past you to get the last box of something off the shelf or push past you in the aisle without saying “excuse me” or apologizing. I don’t know what happened or when it happened along the way, but people seem to have forgotten how to be nice. I was talking about this with my friend Chrissy yesterday, and we both seem to think that over the last 20 years or so people have come to the conclusion that they are entitled to certain things in life, that they don’t have to earn their way, it should be given to them without them having to ask or work for it. We see it a lot with kids and young adults these days, where they aren’t nice to elders or their peers. When I was young, we were always taught to be respectful and polite to everyone, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Is it just that this is something that isn’t stressed in families anymore? I know we always stress it to Sean. Sean and I were in the store yesterday and he bumped into another shopper’s cart (which happens a lot with Sean with his vision) and he immediately apologized and said “I am so sorry Ma’am.” The woman looked at him like he had two heads (I am thinking because he said Ma’am, something she probably doesn’t hear very often) and just moved on, but I was proud that he did that. I have always stressed politeness and respect with him, because it was always stressed with me. I was so glad that one of things all of his teachers have said to me is that he is so polite and respectful to them and to others. It’s really a simple thing to do every day, doesn’t really take much effort and doesn’t impede your day at all. I really can’t understand why people don’t do it more. I have no problem with letting someone who has 1 or 2 items in the shopping line go ahead of me, or someone at the bank (do people still go to the bank anyway?) or post office. In the days before EZ Pass, I have paid the toll of the person behind me. I have helped out someone who didn’t have enough change at the cash register. The philosophy of “pay it forward” I think is a good one. I really do think that doing a nice thing for someone else does it make likely that they will turn around and do something for someone else that day. A nicety done to you changes your attitude and makes you feel like “yes, there really are good people in the world and maybe I can be one of them too and help somebody.” It doesn’t have to be a big , charitable act; I think it’s the small things that really add up. I hope that gentleman I let go ahead of me at the barbershop went and did something nice for someone else after he left. I really do live by the idea now that life is too short to rush around everywhere you go and too short to pass the opportunity to help someone. All the niceties I received in the forms of prayers, visits, smiles and anything else anyone did to help me while I was in the hospital helped save my life, so a little effort on my part isn’t much to ask at all, in my opinion. Try to do something nice like that every day. I know it sounds cliché, but I really do think it can change your life and the life of someone else.

Okay, that’s my sermon for the day. Thanks to everyone who answered and special thanks to Jamie Lynn Siegler for answering me on Twitter (she seemed very nice about and even sent me a little note later on in the day). Now on to the next question. I have been thinking up a bunch of questions over the last week or so and writing them down and now I am trying to figure out which one would be the best to use. I get ideas from lots of places: things I happen to read, see or hear, catch on the news or read on friends’ pages on Facebook or Twitter and try to use them for ideas of things to write about it. I have been able to get a few ideas over the last few days that I hope to use this week, some are fun, some are more, well let’s say thought-provoking, to make it sound more interesting. Today, since it’s kind dreary and it’s Monday, it made me think about how I feel getting up in the morning, so let’s go with this one today:

Do you consider yourself a morning person or an evening person? Why?

It seems everyone is one or the other. I myself have gone through phases in my life where I was one or the other, but I think I am clearly defined as one now in my life. So do you like getting up with the sunrise (or earlier) or do you prefer staying up until the wee hours of the morning? What are the benefits of being one way over the other? I am curious as to what some answers might be and why some people feel better about mornings over evenings and vice versa. Think about it and let me know. You can leave an answer on here, or on Facebook or Twitter. I’ll pose the question to some people on Twitter too and see if they respond. I’ll post my answer tomorrow.

Alright, I rattled on enough today, ranting about being polite, so I’ll be polite now and let you get back to your business and me back to mine. Hopefully the rest of the day gets better for everyone. To my family enjoying the sun in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, I hope you are having a great time! Until tomorrow, don’t forget to do something creative today!