- Date added
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Jan. 9, 2020, 5 a.m.
- Description
- "Like all basic politenesses (please, thank you, excuse me, etc.), it's fundamentally about recognizing that other people are real people whose thoughts and feelings and bodies matter. "Please" means "I realize you may not want what I want"; "thank you" means "I realize you didn't have to do what you just did"; "excuse me" means "I realize your time/attention/personal space are currently taken up with something that isn't me". Politeness requires even extremely solipsistic people to at least pretend that other people are real. If you make a habit of it, you might come to believe it, which in turn makes society a nicer place to be.
But this idea of knocking on one's own heart, hoping to be let in, reminds me that we are not always aware of ourselves as real people whose thoughts and feelings and bodies matter. That there are a lot of times when we shut ourselves down, shut ourselves out, don't even think to seek out and spend time with ourselves."
