Consideration
of Others...

Welcome to the late but not forgotten January Issue of my blog. This year seems to be speeding by already... I looked up, and realized, I had better post something before the end of the month... well... it’s the end of the month.

Have you noticed that people have lost their people skills?
Consideration of others is a lost virtue...

This post was inspired by a good friend of mine. We often commiserate on the subject of lack of consideration of others.

How driver’s have forgotten road etiquette, people who honestly believe that they can drive and talk on the phone, or be in a public place and share their importance and conversation with complete strangers in the most inappropriate places... a restaurant, the bank, ect., people cutting in line, those blocking your way and acting like you have the problem when you say... “Excuse me”... Excuse me, but when did that become an insult?. It’s hard not to lose your center (and want to react in any fashion other than with grace...) when these instances rear their ugly selfish heads...

These are true tests of patience in us all. The electronic age is on us and we have forgotten the old ways... we have virtual friendships, and e-mail... we don’t have to be polite or be personal... we don’t have to interact with real people face to face any more. This has made it easy to forget our actual people skills... We have very few intimate relationships with those we did years ago. People are basically rude, arrogant and impatient because of the “instant gratification junkies” we have become (I want it now... and I want it my way... double click :-)...
The result is a severe disconnect with real time humanity...
One of the many causes for our 21st century stresses.

I found this lovely passage from a book by Douglas Fairbanks entitled, Laugh and Live, written in the early 20th century. It was his thoughts on how to have a happy life... and I thought I’d share it with you...

Life is not just a journey... make it an adventure!
ENJOY! & Much love to you all...
Gail the Groovy









Consideration for Others
Laugh and Live
Chapter 9
by Douglas Fairbanks

Consideration for others is man's noblest attitude toward his fellow man. For every seed of human kindness he plants, a flower blooms in the garden of his own heart. In him who gives in such a way there is no hypocritical feeling of charity bestowed. His very act disarms the thought. It is as natural for an honorable man to show consideration to others as it is for him to eat and sleep. Acts of kindness are the outward manifestations of gentle breeding—a refinement of character in the highest sense of the word.

What would we do in this world without the helping hand, the friendly word of cheer, the thought that others shared our losses and cheered our victories? If consideration for our feelings and thoughts did not exist on this earth we would never know the depths of the love of our friends. There would be no such thing as an earthly reward of merit. We know that no matter what happens to us in the battle of life there will be someone to cheer us on our way. We may be strong and thoroughly able to rely upon ourselves but there comes a time when we need friendship and sympathy. Society would crumble into dust without these influences. The family circle would degenerate into a hollow mockery if consideration each for the other was absent. It sweetens and makes wholesome what otherwise might only be an existence of monotonous toil.

Consideration for others is the milk of human kindness. For what we do for others our recompense is in the act itself . . . we should claim no other reward. Observation brings to view that they who give in real charity cloak their acts from the eyes of all save the recipient. Givers of this type rise to the supreme heights of greatness. It is a part of their wisdom to know what is best to be done and they go about it as a pleasure as well as a duty.

Consideration for others pays big dividends. It is a virtue that makes for strong friendships and true affections. Those who possess it have a hard time hiding their light under a bushel. In teaching fortitude to others they partake of the same knowledge. In the hours of their own affliction they retain their courage and keep their minds unsoured. They are the sure-enough good fellows" of life and their presence is the signal for instantaneous good cheer. We all know them by their gentle knock at the door. In a thousand ways they impress themselves upon our lives, have entered into our councils, have given us the right advice at the right time—and when the sad day comes along their strong shoulders are there for us to lean upon.

The world helps those who help themselves. We have little admiration for the man who is forever whining. Society has no work for such people as these. When we have exhausted every means of helping such a man we must in selfdefense pass him up before he contaminates our sense of justice. We must keep our visions clear.

Consideration for others is a prime refinement of character. To be able to use it in our daily lives becomes one of our greatest consolations. Sympathy begets affection and kindly deeds—in a relative sense it binds together the properties which go to make the soul within us. Browbeating, scolding, irascibility and the like are microbes which react against the milk of human kindness, to which, if we succumb, leaves us stranded and alone amid a world of friendliness and good fellowship.