Good read.. enjoy! Does America need a time-out? By Faith Salie

I am afraid a big part of this world needs a time-out

I agree with Lex.

The City of San Diego has a new public service ad campaign with billboards and bus ads that just came out:

"Loose the Roaditude"

I wonder if rudeness and unhappiness go hand and hand. How many people do you see today that are smiling or will reply if you say "Good Morning" I seem to see fewer and fewer every day. Is everyone that self absorbed? Sad....

I once read when a person can't control his or her own life, they try to control someone else's life. I think that's pretty prophetic. I see it in my workplace a lot. Like adult bullies. One of the reasons we ask everyone to register with a real name is so that members realize when they're responding to a post, they're responding to a real person... not some nameless, faceless entity. It seems to work pretty well for us.

Does anyone know if they still teach the Golden Rule in elementary school? If not, they should!

No they do not....not allowed...teachers can only say"Try to be nice"

Most of the people I know are frightened and depressed today.

They don't know if they will be able to keep their job. They don't know if they will be able to retire. They don't know if their health care will continue, or if it will pay for the procedure they may need (a friend in NJ was just notified that her policy would exclude coverage for cancer treatment upon her next renewal). People are afraid their investments are no longer safe, or if they put their money in the bank, whether they can live on 1/2% interest it pays, or even if Social Security will be there for them.

You put all of this together, and what you have is STRESS. Stress makes humans behave like rats in over populated habitats, with nipping and fighting, as well as hair loss and neurotic behavior manifestations.

Couple this with a general lack of self discipline in people who come to believe, "It's all about ME," and people are bound to be ill at ease, to put it kindly.

Is it any wonder, then, that so many people seem one incident away from snapping, and seem to take things out on others at the slightest provocation?

Bob

Donna, for posting this - it is a good read. I also tend to agree with Lex ... a 'rediscovery' of civility would be terrific! LdB

Camping is a great "time-out". It makes people happy and nice.

If it is like we experienced in NA, we need it harder than you overthere

I think as long as the example in this article is cell phones I will continue along those lines. don't get me wrong I don't know what society would do w/o cells, but, I have to think about the other side of it as well. First of all I am not a phone user although I own a cell phone it goes dead from hanging on my belt unused. My complaint, I notice many times young folks in restaurants on a date and they are texting the whole time, rude???? yes. you go out to lunch with someone and his or her cell rings, you 30 min lunch turns into a 25 minute phone conversation and you may have had something important to talk over but it will have to wait till you can contact him or her at a later date, OH, on the cell phone of course. We need to relearn some manners and leave the cell off when we are going to be spending some time in a one on one situation. Did I mention road rage over nothing

No, but we do at home.

A "funny" thing has happened to me lately... My Mom fell & broke her hip, (that in itself isn't funny at all, but it is the catalist of what has happened), and she has been put in a nursing home to recover and be rehabilitated.

For a full week now, I've been coming to visit with her and some of the other residents in the center as well. Through it all I have taken it upon myself to keep a positive attitutude, & maintain a friendly face when visiting. There's a lot of "human wreckage" in the nursing center, and for me, it really has made me realize that the little miseries in my life pale in comparison to others.

Here's the funny part...while I've never considered myself a overly agressive driver, I've now noticed more tolerance in my reaction to someone "being stupid in a no stupid zone" on the road. I'm not claiming that a visit to a nursing home is a road-rage remedy, but being made to be more compassionate has had a direct effect in my overall outlook to life.

It may be plausable that in our everyday lives, we all are mostly insulated from exposure to life's frailities, and from that insulation, we may lose compassion to our fellow man.

ConwayBob

Well said, Bob - thank you. Hope your Mom is mending fast and will be back on her rollerblades soon! L 'n D

Wow, that says it all................................ I think that yes rudeness is on the rise, but our reaction to it is on the rise as well. Being the one to point out someones lack of common sense is a bad one for me. I wish people would just use the little brain they were born with. I sometimes have to stop myself.............. And think, hmmmmmmmm ignorance is bliss (for them anyway)

Time out? Yes, but until people bring accountability back into their life's even a time out wont help if all we are gonna do is blame someone else for our ill's.

BobH, Hope your Mom is doing better, I often think how nursing homes are gonna look in 30 years. Not that nursing homes don't have enough issue, but think about it, all these people my age are gonna be entering nursing homes with body piercings, tattooooo's galore ( that rose that once graced their boob now sits upon their belly, ewwwwww). And lets not even get into the extra curricular drugs activites, etc.................... Nursing homes are wild places, but can you just imagine how they are gonna look a few years from now? LOL..................

We discussed that on Halloween while watching the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Wondering what the young staff would think of all us (soon to be) old timers dancing the "Time Warp" again.

Rage..1. Violent anger 2. speak, act with fury 3. proceed without check

Just hope thae with all this 'RAGE' in the world today that there will be young people around who care enough to work in these places to be able to take care of us.
My mother is 99 and in a nursing home getting the help she needs. When we visit I also try to include the other senior lady who shares the room. When her family is there, they just stare/glare at us and/or don't even let on that we are there. Makes things a little uncomfortable at times and hard to have a nice visit.

OH! Did I mention road rage?

All kinds of rage out there, look at Ft Hood, and this guy was a military psychiatrist, the next day we had a multiple shooting in Orlando, the country is going nuts. A lot of these folks were brought up in an era where they had everything and they can't stand any kind of adversity or inconvenience in their lives

Thanks, Donna, for posting the link to the article, and to all the members for their very thoughtful comments.

Hmmm! That explains why there seems to be more neighborliness in campgrounds than in city neighborhoods! People are in control of their lives and doing what they enjoy!

Perception is part of the problem. It has been said that we are more likely to become irritated with behavior when we attribute a selfish motive. I've seen this suggestion: when a driver is speeding and cutting thru traffic, would you be as irritated if you found out his wife was in labor in the back seat? Imagine that the next bad driver you encounter is rushing to the bedside of his dying mother. It does change irritation to sympathy to assume a "good" motive.

What often helped me to restrain my middle finger when I was driving in San Diego traffic was to imagine that the person in that car was the next face I saw in my volunteer work. How could I convince them that I want to help them out of the kindness of my heart when I had just cursed them out that morning on the road? It helped me to maintain my own sense of accountability for my reactions.

There sure seem to be a lot of people rushing to the hospital these days

Seriously though, I know what you mean, Anne. I try to think nice thoughts like that, and it does help.... most of the time....

Raya