Let's Make Being Nice the way to be....AGAIN!

My sister and I were traveling to our local fitness club to work out.  We were making a right hand turn, but had to stop at the red light in front of us, as there was traffic zooming through the intersection during the mad evening dash home from work that so many Memphians participate in.  While we were sitting and waiting, another driver, a woman talking on her wireless phone decided that she was going to go around us and she almost hit us!  Instead of her apologizing to us for almost damaging our car, she instead yelled at us, calling us every obscene name that she could think of.  She was so busy yelling at us, that she ran  the red light that we were sitting at and almost hit another car.

I immediately pondered the question, "Why did the woman act that way toward us?"  We were following all the traffic rules and we were not being nasty towards her.  I thought to myself, maybe the woman was upset about something else and took it out on her.  Maybe she hadn't learned any manners growing up.  I was always raised to be polite to others and in my adult life I have been really focused on how I treat other people.  I try to go out of my way to be good to people and to help them out.  I thought, if the woman had simply honked and asked if we could let her by, then I would have happily obliged her and there would not have been an issue.

In contemporary society, where there is already so much negativity, it would be great to see more people be nice.  There are so many perks to having  a positive and pleasant attitude towards others.  Most people never get what they want in life because they don't want to ask for it.  Many young people that I have these pleasure of speaking with, say that being nice can get them accosted by their peers.  I am now asking the question, "When did it become taboo to show courtesy and respect towards another human being?"  When did we start allowing it to be okay for bullies to hurt people and get away with it?  At what point is it okay to spread rumors and lies about celebrities (without even considering how it will affect their children) for the sake of making a buck?  

Even though, there are some who don't think that being nice will take you far in this life, I am a firm believer that it can take you very far.  After all, employers are not going to hire an unpleasant person.  Unpleasant people can be arrested if they are less than cordial to the police.  Being mean spirited can make you lose your friends and loved ones very quickly as well.  We have all seen it happen, and we wish that we didn't have to deal with unpleasant people, regardless of the circumstances.  I call upon all of you to help me to make being nice hot again!  By being nice to someone you don't know, you could very well change their perspective on life.  Our being nice to someone, just may give them the will to keep on living.  But we will never know unless we try.  With that being said, I am going to set out tomorrow, being even more passionate about being even nicer to people.  As I do so, I hope to inspire you to do the same thing.