Good manners, what is that? (By Valéria Guilherme)

I am so impressive the way people are behaving nowadays… most of the people around us do not have good manners and even know the meaning of these simple words. I am not talking about fancy things like how to behave in a black tie party or what is the properly dressing to go in a theatre. Actually I am talking about simple things like the use and the meaning of the words thank you, please, may I? I am saying that being nice and polite to someone that needs help is something unfashionable. People just prefer ignore and keep their attention on the songs they are listen to or just keeping their eyes closed. As everyday I spend so many hours going to work and to school by train and by bus, I can see so many examples of bad attitudes people can have. Yesterday I saw I blind guy trying to get a bus, and no one at the bus station helped him, they prefered just to look to the other side instead of offering help. It is so sad but it is something that we face every where, no matter in which neighborhood we are or which social class we came from. I bought some time ago a book that called Tempo de Delicadeza by Affonso Romano de Sant'Anna that talks exactly about this and a phrase in one poem called my attention: “…sejamos delicados. E, se necessário for, cruelmente delicados”. We are not able to change the whole world, but I think we need to think more about our attitudes and try to change little and precious things in our lifes and always when is possible do the right without looking at who. For sure this is one of my beliefs that I am going to teach my baby.

If you wanna take a look on the poem I mentioned follows the link:
http://br.geocities.com/mensagembomdia/t/tempodedelicadezaaffonsoromano.htm