Armchair Travel
Friday, January 02, 2009
  My New Year's Resolution
I make the same New Year's resolution every year, and even though it's a resolution that is impossible to keep, I think it's a good one.

My resolution is never to be annoyed by the bad manners of others.

Even though this is impossible to do, remebering this resolution changes my reaction to bad manners. If you try to correct someone's manners while you're still annoyed you are very unlikely to improve the situation in any way. And if you're driving an automobile, it can be fatal.

Instead I focus first on not being annoyed, because if you can succeed in this, you can see the humor in the situation. Then you can either laugh it off or improve it in a good-natured way.

And if I ever find myself saying, "I'll teach you..." I take a time out. Whenever anyone says that, teaching is the farthest thing from their mind.
 
Comments:
This sounds to me like a good resolution to take on travels to other countries.

Or to hope that the natives of those other countries have resolved when it comes to the annoying foreigners with whom they have to deal.
 
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Literary gadfly Stephen Hartshorne writes about books that he finds at flea markets and rummage sales.

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Location: Sunderland, Massachusetts, United States

Stephen Hartshorne worked in newspapers and magazines around New England for many years and served as Information Officer in the New Hampshire Senate under Senate President Vesta Roy. He worked as a material handler for nine years at the Yankee Candle Company until the company was taken over by corporate weasels. He is currently the associate editor of GoNOMAD.com, an alternative travel website, which gives him the opportunity to correspond with writers and photographers all over the world. He lives in Sunderland, Massachusetts, with his daughter Sarah, a student at Drew University, and their cat, Dwight D. Eisenmeower. This blog is dedicated to his mom, who made him bookish.

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