One of the reasons we started The Perfect Gentleman was to bring about a resurgence of what we refer to as ‘The Commons’, in other words; Common Courtesy, Common Decency, Common Sense among them. The last one we think we will always struggle with but at least we can hope and pray.
The first two are achievable if not necessary for the fabric society to work. If we are not kind and nice to each other then how are we supposed to work in this crowded world. If we are all pushing to the front and grabbing the best for ourselves and not thinking of others then society will fail. There will always be people out there who will always be purely selfish and there will always be times when we are less than selfless with others. We can always do better.
I was aware of the phrase Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) and always thought it was a good thing and just recently over the week of Valentines was put on to The Random Acts of Kindness week, to promote those actions. Also during that week, the brand Chivas Regal in the UK promoted Random Acts of Chivalry (RAOC) to encourage the Men of the Great Britain to rediscover Chivalry.
As much as admire this efforts to promote these things, what upsets me is that we have to promote them and bring them to the attention of the Public. Should we not be capable of doing acts of kindness and chivalry without having a week to promote it? We need to be doing then anyway, every day of every year.
I think the great and grand gestures of the RAK are fantastic, I have heard some fantastic ones of people buying dinner for a table or purchasing the shopping of the trolley in front of them. Though we should do the small things on a daily basis, whether that’s a silly thing as making sure a pregnant lady gets a seat on a train, making sure the blind man crosses the road safely, or as I did just the other day, help an older lady across a frozen car park.
I know that I am probably preaching to the converted on this website and our general readership but I hope you Ladies and Gentleman who read and follow us, will take this out into the world and make a difference and spread the word. Perhaps we should make it Regular Acts of Kindness, Daily Acts of Kindness or indeed General Acts of Kindness.
It does not need to be anything special, stop and talk to the Homeless person, talk to a stranger, go spend some time with older relatives that you don’t see often, It could be anything. I am sure that you can think of something!
My hope, through The Perfect Gentleman and in my life is that people will start to act with more thought and kindness to each other, this would bring about Common Decency.
Come on Ladies and Gentleman, let us be decent humans and in the words of Bill & Ted – Be Excellent to Each Other.
Respectfully yours as always,
#1PG
