As a child growing up in the seventies, political correctness wasn’t big in my house.
However, manners were belted into me literally. My Mother would sit at the dinner table with a big old wooden spoon right beside her right hand, and if I spoke at the table my knuckles would get a taste of that bloody big spoon.
Now my parents were far from normal or loving. That being said, I did have manners thumped into me.
For all the wrong doings they did that is probably the one thing I can say they did right. Manners will carry you a long way in this world, but honest sincerity whilst using your manners, well that’s what cuts the ‘wheat from the chaff’.
I compare my life where up until now I have been living in a time with no social media, to now when I can talk to the whole wide world. In my opinion as we have advanced with our screens and phones, we should be saying goodbye to the bad old days, where terrible names and stereotypes were dished out as if they fell on deaf ears.
Surely as human beings evolving on this planet we should expect our language, and our understanding of each others differences, to be evolving along with it. Man I sound old!!
Now I have had my share of bullying and slang and derogatory comments hurled at me over the years. There have been jokes about my weight, my teeth (my top teeth have a big overbite) and my big butt. I know one thing for sure, insulting somebody because they are different to us, either behind their backs or these days on their screen, is the lowest form of hurt that can be inflicted on somebody.
We were born this way and you can’t be sent back to the manufacturer to get a quick fix up, or become a new pretty, shiny model.
I once got told by a lady that I could do a lot of damage to a box of green apples! (A lovely comment about my buck teeth.)
Now I was about nine years old when I heard that. Nine years old! I had a face full of freckles, mousy brown hair, and my family was abusing me. I had nobody to support me in any way…and as you can see, I have never forgotten those words.
For some people political correctness seems to be way over the top, but when you are on the receiving end of somebody’s insults and savage tongue, it is very hard to have any self respect. It labels you and it makes you feel worthless.
So I love the fact that I have good manners. It does not cross my mind to hurt or insult someone, in fact, the more different we are the better! I would not want to live in a world where everyone else was the same as me.
I grew up in a home where there was no love, no kindness, and no respect, but take it from me, we can teach ourselves to be the opposite of what was bashed into us.
We can open our hearts and our minds and engage our brains and give the gift of accepting everyone’s differences, and in return you get the biggest gift of all. You get a new friend.
Be kind to yourself,
Big Fat Dee
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