by Lucas Michieli

Created on: December 15, 2009

A child growing up in today’s world is destined to cause or participate in “trouble”, right? It is cute when little Johnny says his first curse word at the age of eight (although you would never let him know that...right?). How about Jacob’s first fight in grade seven? How about little Stephanie? She and her friends often tease the foreign girl. These occurrences may seem relatively harmless, however; some never truly grow out of these and other uncouth forms of behaviour.

For the adult, bad behaviour is funny, bad behaviour is glorified, and in most forms, bad behaviour is legally unrecognized and acceptable. In public, many adults hold the door for another, they may even say hello to another if they appear to be of the same stature. Further, I have witnessed adults offering spare change to the person ahead of them in line in order for the other person to avoid breaking a bill. However, later, some might go on to say: “Did you see that grungy man that I held the door for? He absolutely stunk!”, “I saw that wretched woman that divorced Steven, she looks horrible.”, and “You would not believe the imbecile at the corner store, I had to give him a quarter so that he would quit his fumbling and get out of my way.”: This describes the outlook of the average North American. A disgusting attitude as such, leads to ridiculous relations with others, in our family, at work, and possibly even in our more personal lives.

Many people are motivated to change when there is some form of personal gain involved. So let us take a twenty-first century approach to this: When you witness yourself being discourteous, insolent, or by any means cruel, you can attempt to change your perspective on the situation. Realize that “taking the high road” is a real thing; being calm and respectful will allow you to resolve a conflict and get what you want more often than being belligerent; people are more likely to help you (you will go further and get there faster in any endeavor) if they see you as likable and that you respond amicably to goodwill; stand up when you believe people are doing wrong, that way, when they think about doing wrong to you they may think twice. As you can see there is more to it than just the “treat others as you would like to be treated” motto.

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