True Self-Improvement

Chivalry is dead.

… and it’s all your fault!

A recent FB post by my cousin (Dara Parker) prompted me to write on the looming disappearance of common courtesy. Stay with me on this one, it’s short and DOES have a good ending.

—-

Many years ago (when dinosaurs roamed the Earth perhaps) man in his quest for a mate was often self-sacrificing in his efforts. Opening doors, a helping hand, placing her needs before his own, these were some of the common practices that when used properly would garnish a woman’s respect and hopefully lead to admiration.

Then some bitter woman got angry and demanded more. I’m not sure who this woman was, but if evolution is real then I assume she is descended from some sort of shrew. Whatever the case, woman in her quest for equality said, “I don’t need your help, I can do it MYSELF!” And thus a social arms race began, pitting women against man for a sense of equality.

Then a lot of stuff happened (The “Step 2” effect)

And then man became bitter; unable to please women the old fashioned way he began to forget that there were still old fashioned women out there who had a need for his chivalry and longed to be treated as they were in days of yore.

How do we fix it?

Gratitude.

As I listened to the LDS General Conference today I was moved by The Prophet’s talk on gratitude and how we can all multiply our life by it.

If more people expressed gratitude when a kind act is done for them, more people would do kind acts. It’s not complicated, just hard for some people to swallow their pride!

-KZ

• October 03, 2010, 9:37pm

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