Saturday 30 May 2015

7 words

I've written before about my love for Kurt Vonnegut. I am amazed you can live through what he did and come out the other side a 'humanist' of such kind and generous proportions.

I won't repeat what I discussed in the Unusual Discourse on Love, but I was struck with the simplicity and remarkable truth of this quote, that I wanted to share again. In Jailbird, he says that a friend summed up what he's written several books about into seven words "Love may fail, but courtesy will prevail"

In all your interactions, but especially with those closest to you, treat them with the courtesy you would a stranger.

It's a very simple truth and yet more often than not, we treat the ones closest to us with the most indifference and ill-mannered emotion. We are careless with those we love most, for want of a better word.

See if that extra kindness makes a difference, and as you go about your day, make all your interactions make the other person's day a little brighter, from the barista to your husband (and especially your button pushing teen!!).

And so it goes.

Linking up with #BooknificentThursdays 

26 comments:

  1. Too true! I am a firm believer in this. Nothing irks me more than extended family who treat other family members like trash. Respect and courtesy as you say. x

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  2. I love that quote "love may fail, but courtesy will prevail". It's true that we can often be snarky to those closest to us while we would never interact that way with a stranger. It's a good point to be aware of!!

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  3. Oh that is so true, and a really good thing to be reminded about. I know I am guilty of treating my loved-ones with less than the respect and care they deserve.

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  4. It is easy to take that unconditional love for granted, and abuse it. Thanks for that reminder.

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  5. Yep, guilty. I think all generations have done it, but in a different way, too. It might also be a 'chicken and egg' thing too, with the whole button-pushing thing happening from all sides. A nice reminder, though. Thanks Lydia.

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  6. Absolutely true. A great reminder :)

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  7. I agree. We often take those we love for granted.

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  8. I'm going to be attentive to everyone all day now. It's true we do treat our closest with casual familiarity.

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  9. I sometimes share with my unmarried friends that I think a good marriage is able understanding that whilst you can sometimes not actually like the person very much {because of silly things like not taking the bins out or coming home late when you have screaming children}, you actually always love them and because we love them, we often take our frustrations out on them - which is bad.

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  10. What an amazing insight from Vonnegut's friend. I also think your words are amazingly insightful: "we are careless with those we love most." It makes me think of how often people push the idea of " what would you do if you could get away with anything..." The way we treat our dearest is probably the biggest insight into who we really are of all. I hope it's pretty! x

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  11. Hi Lydia a great reminder because we do take those closest to us for granted at times. Another reminder is to remember to treat ourselves as we would a friend. Sometimes we forget to show kindness to ourselves don't we? Have a lovely week and I enjoyed your post. #lifethisweek

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  12. Such wise words and yes it's a bit of a paradox, that it's the people that we treasure most that we take for granted and often bear the brunt when we're at our end of our tether.

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  13. A great reminder! #lifethisweek

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  14. Wise words, thank you, Lydia!

    SSG xxx

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  15. A simple truth but one that needs a reminder every so often.

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  16. Thanks Lydia, something we need to be reminded of, especially at the moment! A great quote I've not heard before. #lifethisweek

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  17. Such a good saying. We'd all do well to remember it more often.
    Vanessa

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  18. very true. I need to keep reminding myself of this. Kindness begets kindness.

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  19. I think its even more important right now to be kind to everyone, especially the ones we love. We are all hurting to some extent right now #dreamteamlinky

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  20. So so need to remember to be kind to even those I am closest to...and more than that to me as well. Lovely post.

    Thank you for linking up for Life This Week. I have created a list of lovely regular linkers such as you on the right hand side of my blog. It's now showing more of the community that gathers here each Monday to share our stories. Great to see you here too. Next week's optional prompt is to 'share your snaps'....hope you will be back. Denyse.

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    1. Yes, my break is proving longer than I thought. But I'll get onto it again next week...

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  21. Such an important message. And even more so in the current environment. We absolutely have to treat each other with love and respect if we have any hope of making positive progress. Thanks for sharing this message and linking up with me.

    Shelbee
    www.shelbeeontheedge.com

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  22. I have a major problem with my children treating me and their grandparents with indifference. We are working on listening to each other and using please and thank you! Thanks for linking upwith #dreamteamlinky

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  23. Yes, exactly this. It's a really positive message and we should absolutely be making sure that we treat close family and friends with the same courtesy as a stranger. I think there tends to be the odd button pushing of nerves and not so courteous behaviour when everyone is so comfortable with each other and know they have unconditional love from their family/friend unit - but still... Thank you for joining us for the #DreamTeamLinky

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  24. Yes, let's not save our gracious good manners for strangers!

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