"The Foundation for Peace" - Commentary by Tony Seton

The Foundation for Peace

Courtesy is the foundation for peace. Granted, there are those who aren’t interested in peace. Psychotic religious types and right-wing nutzis among that crowd, but most healthy hearts and minds truly yearn for peace.

I mention this because courtesy is such a basic posture, probably even intrinsic. There’s the old saw about it taking fewer facial muscles to smile than to frown, for example. And I’ve seen proof of this on my daily perambulations. I’ll be walking along and someone coming the other way might not want to engage and so will look away.

But if I’m feeling ornery, I’ll offer a cheery hello, and invariably, the other person will look up at me quickly with a warm smile and return the greeting. And it will be with relief and pleasure, not guilt; it will be most natural, as if I’ve pulled them out of a reverie.

Similarly, courtesy presents itself, or not, when I receive calls that were mis-dialed. I have a toll-free number coming into my phone that was tied to a pilot service that is no longer active. Apparently that number is close to another pilot service number because those who call are pilots.

Now pilots are a special class, and maybe it’s because they have to communicate using their radio, or not, but they are inevitably polite when they are informed that they’ve gotten a wrong number. It’s almost a pleasure to deal with the interruption. This, as compared to those who simply grunt, swear and hang up.

We need more basic human interactions to remind us that we are not alone but part of a larger whole. We need to be cognizant of others -- not only because it’s nicer communing with fellow human beings -- but because we won’t create the world we want without the cooperation of others.

If you’re put off by the frou-frou notion of peace as a goal, as a reason to be courteous, consider the alternative. Just read today’s headlines.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.