Bless You & Thank You Cards

If you’re full grown, living on your own without children, it could be a little difficult to relate or remember the fighting and stress of either being told or telling your own child to be respectful and polite. Even half decent parent tells their child to be mindful of respect and social etiquette regardless of how horrible they may be themselves. It kind of makes you wonder how we all grew up so crude. OK, not all of us, I know some of you out there are “holier than thou” or angelic and innocent, but most everyone I know has a certain degree of filth about them.

• – Cover your mouth when you cough/sneeze
• – Excuse yourself if you belch and never pass gas
• – Ladies cross their legs, men open/hold the door
• – Don’t use foul language
• – Don’t make a spectacle of yourself in public

I’m sure there’s a lot more than can be added to my list, but then again I was raised by wolves in a barn.

The whole idea of being nice and polite is usually a front anyway, especially on the phone. I can’t even try to count the number of times I’ve seen people all sweet and nice on the phone and as soon as they hang up they scream obscenities or others making the “blah, blah, blah” motion with their hand like it’s a puppet. I wonder how many times I’ve been on the phone with someone who after we hung up did or had done something nasty while we were talking while I felt like, “they were so nice”. I’m guessing hundreds?

The two weirdest thing of the polite and sweet culture is the “thank you” card and the “bless you” or “gesundheit”.

The Thank You card: Why do these even exist? Sometimes you might really want to thank someone and want to sincerely tell them so by mail, but that sentiment is totally lost in a sea of forced, unnatural, habitual and cheap thank you cards. You ever get one that was like, “Thanks for the thing. Tom”? Makes you all warm and fuzzy inside doesn’t it? I’m of the mindsets that if you wanted to tell someone thanks, you tell them, maybe even do something nice in return. Grandma gives you money, go rake the leaves in her yard, but sending a 99 cent card with a bird on the front and the inside that says, “Thank You” doesn’t send that message. Maybe it’s just me. If you do get a thank you card are you suppose to send a thank you card for the thank you card? It seems like you could get locked into a “thank you circle” that you could never get out of.

Bless You & Gesundheit: Why is there a battle between these two anyway. I’ve never understood blasphemy, because I’d think that “blessing” someone would be beyond your job duties as a mortal. I don’t like being told either one because it makes me feel uncomfortable. What do I say in return? Do I have to say something in return? What if the person that tells me that is a co-worker that I hate and I don’t want to tell them thank you? Is it rude to ignore them and not respond? Would it be better to just let people sneeze?

I think the next time some tells me “bless you” or “gesundheit”, I’ll just send them a thank you card.

Egg On!

Ramblin’ Rooster