FRONT PORCH VIEW

Here I am sitting at 308 East Dubuque St. in Webster City on the front porch of my childhood home. I saw alot of people and heard alot of things from these steps throughout the years.  I had no idea the education this classroom was providing for me.


One of the lessons I was taught by the people who owned this house was how to be 'civil' towards other people.  Now mind you my Dad was a Navy veteran who served in Korea and sailed the ocean blue.  He had seen quite a bit.  My Mom grew up in a German household and having an opinion and telling you what it was came fairly easy.   But disrespecting someone was out of the question.  If anything Mom would say 'we'll talk about it later when we get home.'  Disrespecting my elders was simply out of the question...even if they were in the wrong.


So when it came time to how I acted in public and how I responded towards people that had already been addressed.  You acted with a measure of civility...period.  You represented your family, or your school, or your church, and yourself.


But from my front porch steps it looks to me that we seem to be living in the midst of an epidemic of rudeness and lack of civility.


A Colorado funeral director complains about impatient drivers darting in and out of funeral processions.  Ugh!  Of course that's when I take a step backwards in my own civility and call the guy a moron.  Sorry


Have you been through an airport terminal lately?  There is a story of a man who was angry at missing a flight connection and threw his suitcase at an eight-month pregnant airline employee.  Or the woman who heard there were no more sandwiches on her flight and punched the flight attendant.


Hey have you tried lately driving through a construction zone to merge over to another lane?  Really!! You see my turn signal flashing, the merge signs are posted....just let me over and ALL the traffic keeps moving.  But kudos to you...you managed to pretended not to see me and forced me to stop.  You won that round.

Character assassination and negative political advertisements are up.  Have you ever heard Michael Savage on his radio program.  He confesses and arrogantly tells you he's smarter than most people but in the same breath calls people names like Jr. Hi kids do.  Ooooh that's got to hurt.


Remember when the phone would ring and the person would say, "Oh excuse me I need to take this call."  The other day I saw a woman not on one cellphone but TWO at the same time and trying to pay for her gas blowing off not only the clerk but the people standing in line.  I'm sure both calls were very important.


Hold the door open for people today and most will blow by without a thank you.


It's no wonder that many people are talking about the need for a return to  being civil to one another.  U.S. News and World Report talks about "The American Uncivil Wars."  They conclude that "crude, rude, and obnoxious behavior has replaced good manners."  Maybe we're seeing more bad behavior and lack of civility because more and more people live for themselves and do not feel they are morally accountable to anyone.


Maybe if there was a return to the age old principle of "love your neighbors as yourself" this would be a better world to live in.  Hey it's a thought.
  
I like what Stephen Carter wrote in his book "Civility."  He writes:
"There needs to be a signal of respect for our fellow citizens, marking them as full equals, both before the law and God.  Rules of civility are thus also rules of morality; it is morally proper to treat our fellow citizens with respect, and morally improper not to.  Our crisis of civility is part of a larger crisis of morality."


I believe being "civil" starts with each one of us.  As parents, grandparents, teachers, doctors, coaches, teaching our kids about being 'civil'. It's our moral responsibility.  And that includes being civil to one another as we travel this life.


Being civil starts with me...it starts with you.  Be kind.

BIG BLOG BONANZA

BIG BLOG BONANZA

Here it is the BIG BLOG BONANZA trivia question presented by Lifeworks.

"With a history of over 4,000 years in China, it was the ancient Greeks that poetically called these the "golden eggs of the sun?"  To what were the Greeks referring to?

BIG BLOG BONANZA

Here's this week's BIG BLOG BONANZA trivia question presented by Lifeworks.  Submit your answer on Facebook where everyone can view your answer.  The correct answer wins a McDonalds Gift Card.

"Who said it and where was the phrase 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' used thousands of times?"

Front Porch Views

Remember when houses that we're built came with a front porch?  Usually front porches came with a couple of folding lawn chairs and if you upgraded you had rocking chairs.  But that was it.  No piped music, small refrigerator, fire-bowl, matching table and chairs, flat screen TV, electric awning, hot tub...just a couple of chairs.

People said you could sit on your front porch and watch the world go by.  Well at least the neighbors would go by.  You'd say "hi" to each other and maybe they'd walk up the sidewalk and visit for a bit.  Conversation would be about local events, the high school football team, gardens, flowers, and just general gossip.  People would drive by in their cars and honk and wave.  If it was a quiet evening you listened to the birds singing, the neighborhood kids laughing and playing, and an occasional bark from a dog.  Adults would sip from a cup of coffee and kids, well if you were lucky, some pop.  Hey the front porch WAS the original NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH program.

That in a nutshell was life on the front porch.  Except if you lived in northern Iowa.  Then there were many months of the year it was just too cold and too much snow to sit on any porch.  Maybe that's what drove up the value of the front porch.  You really looked forward to being out on it when Spring arrived.

But then something tragic happened to the front porch.  House developers thought it would be a good idea to move the porch to the back of the house and build a "privacy fence" around us.  The privacy fence would offer seclusion from all other life forms.  We could have our privacy!  Thanks goodness no pressure to have to talk to anyone, get to know our neighbors, and watch the world.  Did you know that if you go just 2 houses any direction from where you live there's a good chance you don't know your neighbors?  That is sad.
And when did we start talking about the "office" in our home??  Really? (I'll save that for another time).

I hear people on average a couple of times a week asking what is going on in this world?  Why are people they way they are?  Why can't we get along?  I'll tell you why.  No front porch!  We don't 'talk' to each other any more.  We 'text', we 'e-mail', we 'Twitter' but we DON'T talk to each other.  All the other is superficial.   Useful...yes...but when we lose human contact folks, we're all in trouble.

One Minute Devotion from Guidepost

On our 20th wedding anniversary, my husband walked in the door with a dozen red roses.  I went to the living room cabinet for a vase and saw several of our wedding gifts sitting on the shelf-china, crystal, silver-as though they were museum pieces.  "We'll save them for a special occasion," I'd told Bob.  But in 20 years, we'd hardly used them.  Most of the time they sat waiting on that shelf.  Well, if this isn't a special occasion, I thought, I don't know what is.


Reaching for that vase, I thought of other gifts I might have stowed away, waiting for just the right moment.  Like my gift for music.  I hadn't sung in the church choir in years; I always said I was too busy.  But just like those wedding gifts, weren't God's gifts meant to be used and enjoyed?

That night we set the table with our best tablecloth, our silver flatware, and a cut-crystal vase filled with red roses.  The kids especially enjoyed drinking sparkling juice from etched crystal goblets that they'd never before seen on our dinner table.  We laughed as the four of us clinked our glasses together.  "Let's do this more often," my daughter said.

"We will," I replied, as I made a mental note to go to choir practice that week.  After all, if every day is a gift from God, then all of life is a special occasion.

BIG BLOG BONANZA

Here it is..the BIG BLOG BONANZA trivia question.  The right answer wins you a McDonald's gift card.
"Which city in the United States has the most churches?"
You can post your answer on my Facebook page.

"They Said It" Quotes to Live & Learn By

"The secret of making something work in our lives if first of all, the deep desire to make it work; then the faith and belief that it can work; then hold that clear definite vision in your consciousness and see it working out step by step, without one thought of doubt or disbelief."

---Eileen Caddy

"To be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting."

---E.E. Cummings

"A positive thinker does not refuse to recognize the negative, he refuses to dwell on it.  Positive thinking is a form of thought which habitually looks for the best results from the worst conditions."

---Norman Vincent Peale

"We should say to each child; Do you know what you are?

You are a marvel.  You are unique...

You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven.

You have the capacity for anything."

---Pablo Casals