Have a nice day

Traveling this past weekend was such an eye opening experience. There were a few things that I noticed that I thought worth mentioning. As I was at the airport, I was buying a few things in the gift shop and the sales clerk said, "have a nice day" after we had exchanged some small pleasantries, and I looked her right in the eye and said, "you have a wonderful day too". She was shocked. She said that she hears "you too" and that sort of thing in all kinds of tones, but how often do we think of how we respond to others who are serving us. Make eye contact, be sincere, and think about their day...truly be sincere about what you're saying, and see what a difference it makes to them, and to you.
The other thing I thought about while traveling: I had purposely avoided watching the news story about the plane going down in the Hudson because I didn't want to know, the night before we flew out. Once at my destination, I listened to my wise mother talk about all the amazing things that this pilot did to save these people and the precision and forethought it took, not to mention bravery, to carry out all those tasks. I don't normally talk about current events on this blog, but this exceptional event of courage and heroism is worth talking about. My mother was talking about how much the flight attendants do need our attention when we're sitting in our seats "listening" to them. We also should take very seriously sitting in the exit row and when a verbal confirmation is asked for when sitting in the exit row, give it solemnly and understand that you may be partially responsible for helping your fellow passengers to exit the plane safely.

I believe this ties beautifully into etiquette because it's about others. When dealing with retailers it's about thinking about their day, not just yours. When we're talking about flight attendants and airline travel, it's about courtesy in listening and accepting responsibility. I saw one man last night on his phone while the instructions were being explained to him (no doubt he's well traveled) and he felt that sitting in an exit row wasn't a big deal and he didn't need to listen and didn't need to verbally commit to the flight attendant. She asked him to get off his phone (which he did after several minutes) and accepted his responsibility. I want people who care about others helping me off the plane, how about you. Take care of each other with bravery, selflessness, and kindness.