Would you like to make the world a better place, but find yourself quite unready to sell everything you own and move to a developing nation to help the poor and oppressed? Before you completely disregard your fledgling altruism, there’s something easy for you to do, and it won’t cost you a dime, cramp your cozy lifestyle, or even cause you to miss Dancing With the Stars. You won’t even have to take the headphones out of your ears (unless you want to hear the ensuing “Thank you”). Try this: Next time you’re walking through a door in a public area, like at a McDonald’s or a shopping mall, briefly check over your shoulder, and if there is someone behind you, hold the door open for them. No, it isn’t philanthropically groundbreaking. And it obviously doesn’t solve world hunger or genocide. It’s just plain nice. And niceness seems to be a trait that is rather less en vogue than it has sometimes been.

I’m not sure why this is. I could speculate, but I’d just sound like some cranky ol’ crackpot blathering on about the decline of civilization and what-oh-what-is-this- world-coming-to. In the interest of avoiding hypocrisy, I will attempt to refrain from this kind of pointless negativity, despite the fact that the subject is actually one of my favorite conversational motifs. After all, ranting about other people’s shortcoming it isn’t nice- and niceness is sort of what this post is about. Instead, I’ll focus on how easy it is to be nice, and how small gestures of kindness and courtesy can go much further than you might think. (more…)