The Etiquette of Opening Doors…and all that kind of stuff
I err on the side of politeness, in fact, some might argue, overly so. I say please and thank you, offer up a quick “yes sirs” and “no miss” and generally use the manners my parents raised me with to get through my day. I realize in this topsy-turvy world of text messaging, drive-thru STARBUCKS(tm) and downloadable music most people don’t usually make time to acknowledge a neighbor or offer their seat to an elderly person, but I was raised to be polite. And I open doors for people. What seems like an arcane practice these days has always been to me, the most basic of human civility. Opening towards one or pushing in, what does it take to stop a second and hold a door open for some one, or God forbid, walk first to the door in question, open it and stand aside holding it while you let another person go before you? I realize it’s an old practice, none too witnessed these days, but I have also noticed because very few people seem to do it, when I do ‘do it’ (which is always) some of the people I do ‘do it’ for, do not say thank you…in fact some don’t even acknowledge me at all. It’s kinda like how I view sex (yes, for me, most of life’s little trials and tribulations come back to sex). I am ever polite, or at least try to me. I have always acted under the assumption that if there is going to be someone there with me while I huff, puff and sweat why not, at the very least, acknowledge that other person? I know I am guilty as the next guy (or girl) when it comes to getting so caught-up, loosing myself and my usual ‘giving-as-good-as-I-am-getting’ reciprocation to the heat of the moment, but for the most part, I’d like to believe I am at least appreciative, polite and downright interested in the other person enough to make them feel that I am happy they are there. Sure, when I was a younger man, friction was about the only thing I had on my mind, so when I got it, or close to it, I lost most of my sexual etiquette and manners. I fully admit this and have attempted, in my ‘later’ years to rectify this situation or at least submerge my ache for the warmth and tickle to the feelings of ‘the other’. I try to be polite, civil, attentive, empathetic, all the things I hope my fellow man (or woman) will be to me when I hold door or say good morning. It is a hard long (pardon the pun) lesson for a man to learn, our sexual responses, especially those we feel those crazy years when we are first having those sexual responses, are so much more at the surface and that much more easily alighted; at 18 I was a rocket-ready-to-roar if even the wind blew in my direction! But a man learns, hopefully, as we all do, that there are other people in this world with us we need to consider, communicate with, in and out of the bedroom and life will be a lot easier lived, if we at least hold a door open or put a towel down.


