Enter password. Click. Accepted! Your password removes the electronic barrier giving you access to the data or secrets guarded behind. Forget your password? Ah, now you are at the mercy of the digital trolls guarding the treasure. Enter the dark corridors and fumble your way through the recovery mode to put you back in charge. We grumble about remembering complex passwords in our modern lives but somehow we manage to function.
Life is good when you remember your password. Business is conducted, messages sent and received, social connections are made. Etiquette or manners are social passwords we also balk at having to remember and observe but, like electronic passwords, they are necessary codes for conducting our lives in a civilized and pleasant way.
As long as humans have lived together, rules for conduct have been a reality and a necessity. On the surface they appear rigid and arbitrary but in truth, etiquette is responsive to change. Using appropriate etiquette continues to unlock benefits and make life easier.
When we travel to foreign countries, we take time to learn at least the few key words of Please and Thank you to make social interactions easy and enjoyable. Does it help? Of course it does. But we don’t have to leave the country to be reminded that certain situations requires specific words and behaviour.
In a way, being mindful of etiquette is like learning another language. Etiquette is a dialect of our culture that is anchored in the past but functions now. In a similar way, Latin is an ancient base of many of our modern languages. Etiquette seems as irrelevant as Latin but even a few Latin phrases come in handy. So what is the best way to learn a language or remember a password? Learn by using. Write a note of thanks. It doesn’t take long to think of someone who has helped you lately. Click. Perhaps you have received a gift. Did you write them a note of thanks? Click.
The test of good manners is to be patient with the bad ones. Solomon Ibn Gabirol