Happiness Is...

Manners, Anyone??

Earlier today Kaelin and I were at Target shopping for some birthday presents for Collin.  As always when I go to Target, I had a cart full of much more than birthday presents for Collin, and we were walking through the book section.  I saw some books that I thought he might be interested in, and Kaelin and I were discussing what he is currently reading, what he has read recently, and what we thought he might like.  We were ACTIVELY engaged in conversation about the product on display in front of us.  

I heard a little voice say, "Excuse me," but it didn't seem to be directed at me. I looked down and a little guy about 4 years old walked by, not looking at me, so I went right back to talking to Kaelin about the books we were looking at.  A short time later, the boy's mom says, "Excuse me!"  So I turned and looked at her and she told me her son wanted to look at the same display of books that we were looking at.  Even though we were there first, were looking at the books with the intent of buying, she was essentially telling us to move because her son wanted to look and we were in the way.  

Rather than make a scene, we walked off and I explained to Kaelin how rude that lady had been and that she should have waited for us to finish looking and then let her son have his turn after we left.  It would have been different if we had been standing there, not paying attention to the product we were standing in front of.  Then I would have understood her asking us to move.  But since we were, in fact, looking at the books, I think she should have just backed off and quietly waited until we were finished.  Am I wrong here?  

It just seems to me that people these days can't "wait their turn."  We've got to have everything RIGHT NOW no matter what.  And just because you use the phrase "Excuse me," does not mean that you are being polite.  That phrase can be used in a very rude manner...and usually is.  

Can somebody please explain to me whatever happened to common courtesy and good manners?  It's frustrating trying to teach kids good manners when there aren't any good examples for them to see.  

The One With the Most Money Wins?

So today I was playing Life with one of my students and we were reading the directions.  I got to the part that said the one with the most wealth at the end of the game wins.  I guess when I was a kid I knew that was how you won the game, but that statement got under my skin a little bit today when I read it.  

I was thinking about how, when I come to the end of my life (assuming I know it's the end of my life), I hope I can look at my life and believe there was more to it than the amount of money I saved.  Because if I'm going to base the worth of my life on how much money I made I suspect I'm going to be disappointed in the end.  I hope whether or not I "won at life" will be measured by the relationships I have with my kids and my family, as well as who I came in contact with along the way and how I treated them.  I want my life to be so much more important than dollar signs.   

I know it's just a game and it's entirely possible that I'm making too much out of it, but when I look around me and see things that are happening in America, and I see people on tv and how they behave, it's not so unusual to see real people living their lives in pursuit of all things superficial.  And I think they might buy into the idea that a successful life really is measured by how big your bank account is in the end.  What do you think?

Those Super Bowl Commercials

I thought that the majority of this year's commercials during the Super Bowl were rather un-entertaining.  There were a couple that actually made me laugh, but this one was my absolute favorite:

 

"Life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it"

-Ferris Bueller