Civilizing

ROBERT HEINLEIN said that the quality of a civilization can be measured by te cleanliness of its public restrooms, and by the level of courtesy its citizens extended to strangers. When people give respect and kindness to others who offer nothing in return, civilization thrives, according to the science fiction writer. Courtesy, or the lack of it, reveals much about a person's character, the older generation always accuses the younger generation of having poor manners, all throughout history. What they omit mentioning is that they themselves were once young, and that they failed to acquire good manners as they aged and grew old. Often the old are the most rude. In America, the public restrooms tend to be filthy. I am often tempted to remind people that there are seven and a half billion people on Earth, and that only a feew of them are even aware of your existence, no matter who you are, or even care that you exist if they do know. This happens when someone hears a song in her purse, picks up her smart phone, looks at the number, recognizes it, and nonchalantly replaces the phone in the purse. Whatever the caller had to say can wait until I find it convenient to listen to it, whether or not it is urgent. If teh caller, a friend, had knocked at the door with urgent news, she night instead have locked the door, turned out the lights, and pulled the shades. Smart phones and email invite convenient communication, and arrogant, dismissive rudeness. I recently reconnected with a lady with whom I had been friends forty years ago, before going separate ways, as often happens. It was a happy reunion. While talking, we mentioned a mutual friend that neither of us had spoken to nor heard from in decades. I decided to contact him by email,, and give him the lady's phone number.He got in touch with her, and they too had a happy reunion. For my thoughtfulness and trouble I never received a simple thank you from him, even though he told her how happy he was that I had given him her number. it would have taken him only a moment to shot me an email, saying thanks. The level of civilization in any culture can be measured by how well its citizens treat each other. in America, we need to clean our public restrooms.