TWO WORDS OR LESS
Take time to say "Thank you."
Isn't it odd that such an easy, pleasant thing to do has been allowed to become distasteful chore with so many of us? Notice how infrequently some people actually express their appreciation for what others do for them. They seem to have an idea that you are, in some strange way, privileged to wait upon their needs. And, by not failing to express any gratitude or favors done, that "I'm special!" attitude seems to take deep roots and grows to a point where such attentions cease and they wonder why. Check it out. Are you keeping your membership card in society valid and up to date by saying "Thank you" for the good things other add to your enjoyment of daily living?
Your greatest wealth is to be found, I think, in all those little things people do for you. Often it can be a trade-off.
Just this past week I was entering a doctor's office and ahead of me another tottering old man with a cane in hand, held the outside door open for me to enter. I did so while he held the door and then I held the inner door open for him. We smiled at each other ; each said "Thank you, sir." and both experienced a good feeling about a passer-by whom we will never see or hear about in all that remains of our lives. We had shared a tiny moment of living.
On the morning of July 4th, just past, I read a humor column in the pages of the Hampton Roads,Virginia DAILY PRESS, in which writer Tony Gabriele granted unto the founding fathers of our nation and "F" grade on Spelling. It was a imagined conversation with Tom Jefferson, John Adams and Ben Franklin discussing the fact that the lower case printed letter "s" looked like our lower case letter "f". John Adams was having trouble with Tom's line concerning ?the purfuit of happineff? and even worried about Abe Lincoln facing trouble a few hundred years from their time writing his "Gettysburg Adreff."
When I read a choice morsel such as that, I have an urge to thank the writer. I did so with an e-mail note to Tony Gabriele awarding him an "S+" for a satisfactory-and-more treatment of the 4th of July.
Two other "thank you" incidents while I am on the subject: Several years ago I chanced to meet my old High School principal, and we ,naturally, spoke of teachers I had known. I inquired about one particular teacher has meant so much to me over the years. It was because she once took time to read and talk to me about a poem I h ad written. She particularly liked the part where told of standing on a high hill and watching " a plowman weaving patterns on the rich, dark river bottom land below. The unusual thing was that the principal asked if I would permit him to call her that night, retired now and living alone, he knew. He would tell her I said ?Thank you? for a comment made many years before. He wanted to do so because I was the first student he could remember who had ever asked about her in all the years we had been out of school.
I have, in my files, a prized letter from the Russian historian Maurice Hindus who, many years ago during the short post Stalin defreeze era, returned briefly to his native Russia from his home here in America. He wrote a book about the visit. Most people do not realize it is about Soviet Russia because of it's title. It's is called "House Without A Roof" alluding to the fact that the Soviets built many walls but never quite completed any of them to a point where a protective roof could be applied. I liked his book and wrote a short note to him in care of the publishers. Months later I was pleased to have a long, chatty letter from Maurice Hindus, thanking me for my thank you note.
Treasures are made of such trivia. Say "Thank you" more often and watch your wealth grow.
A.L.M. June 8, 2004 [ c710wds]
