The past moments have been so wonderful with you. Thank you for being there. Again, here I am to say that you are welcome to PILLOW TALK WITH FLOURISH.
(I have an important announcement after today’s musing. Please, stay tuned.)
Let us do some English class here. What is Courtesy? (pauses for a minute to receive your answer). Thank you very much for your response. I will read the various answers to you now.
If you are on your bed, you must have mentioned any of these: good manners, politeness, gallantry, civility, polish, respectfulness, graciousness, refinement, or decency.
If you are sitting on a chair, you actually said one of these: couth, kindness, cordiality, affability, chivalry, courteousness, gentility, thoughtfulness.
But if you checked your dictionary just now: you are one of those who gave me these answers: geniality, urbanity, discretion, or diplomacy.
(laughing so hard already? Please, don’t ask me how I knew. LOL!)
In a nutshell, Courtesy is an attitude characterized by kind, polite, respectful, and considerate expressions to other people. To me, it feels like doing to others what I want them to do to me. I don’t want nobody (read in an American voicing) to treat me like I don’t matter so I will treat them like they matter. If you want to be respected, it is good to treat others with respect too- Courtesy. You know what? Courtesy is contagious.
Looking around today, it appears that the volume of courtesy has been reduced so significantly. The politeness of attitude has been downplayed due to lots of factors. This, however, does not mean that the days of courtesy are over. Being courteous is a value that we need to bring back to life. See these:
A random day at work
You: Good morning, so-and-so
So-and-so: Morning
(Morning what? Even if so-and-so is older than you, I don’t think forgetting the good is polite).
Monday on a social media platform
Somebody: Hi (8: 03)
You: Hello there! (8:05)
Somebody: Hi (21: 35)
You: Hello, good evening. (21:37)
(Dear reader, I am not getting this at all. Is somebody trying to prank you? Maybe somebody should politely introduce him/herself or what do you think? Or maybe you might also politely ask somebody to let you know who he/she is).
In a class of 50 people, Whatsername stands to move but You noticed she is at that time of the month- stained!
Me: How will you talk to her?
You (male/ female): _______
(I know we want to let her know that, right? I am sure you will talk to her politely because trust me, she feels embarrassed already but that simple courtesy can make Whatsername feel better.)
Courtesy is not necessarily a set of rules but a manner of attitude. It is needed in every day relationships and conversation, business, politics, organizations, etc. I will remind us of some courteous behaviours by some random examples.
Saying please, sorry, and thank you is not old-fashioned. Picking up a call and saying ‘who is this?’ is so rude (and painful too). If you call a couple of times with no response or missed some calls, it is only polite if you drop a message.
Being respectful to everyone- friends, peers, younger people, and older people. As much as we are free with our friends, simple courtesies will help our friendships. We should never get too familiar with them that we forget to thank them for a kind gesture.
If you sleep over at your friend’s place, remember to lay the bed. In a conversation with someone and you need to pick a call? “Excuse me” has never been better.
Remember to ask people for their permission if you need to check the pictures on their phones. Calling a commercial motorcycle rider by saying “ess or pss pss or tssk” or doing the lip fart is not so polite. I think we can call their attention in a better way, right?
(And chatting with full spellings is also being polite. I mean, that is why it is different from an SMS where the use of abbreviations is allowed. Writing “I’m or I am” or “does” or “those” or simply writing appropriately is being courteous).
I will leave us with this quote from Lady Mary Montagu- ‘politeness costs nothing and gains everything.’ There is more to all of these than we have talked about. So, if we pay more attention to courtesy, we will be influencing the world around us positively (and the ones Coming Up Next, winks).
I could never thank you more than enough for musing with me. I appreciate your polite feedbacks and beautiful contributions too. I am looking forward to them this time again. You can send them directly or leave a response here. I love you deeply.
(and to the announcement…)
First off, I want to let you know that I appreciate everyone who has been a part of Pillow Talk with Flourish. Thank you for reading, putting the pictures up on your status feeds, sharing the links, and for those great feedbacks. I made new friends too. I am really grateful. God bless you all.
Also, I want to specially thank Olalekan Owonikoko (theimisiOluwa). He painstakingly reads through every post before it is published. And the first couple of designs were by him before he handed the baton of designing to me (and I’m sure I did well too). Your encouragement and support mean so much to me. I appreciate you, sir.
On a final note, I am pleased to inform you that this season of Pillow Talk with Flourish will be brought to a halt. However, the next couple of weeks will be for the publishing of responses from our fellow musers. Believe me, I enjoyed every moment with you.
There is no Pillow Talk without YOU!
Stay safe and blessed.
See you later!
(Photo by Johan Godínez)