Do Right #5: Cigarette butts are littering

How often do you see people throw their cigarette butts out their windows, empty ashtrays onto parking lots, step on their cigarette butts in the park? Cigarette butts are litter! If you have ever been on the cleaning up end of cigarette butts, you know that they do not go away unless they are picked up or swept up. So please think twice before you throw your cigarette out your window and realize you are littering. Put it out and throw it in a garbage can!

Do Right #4: Pick Up After Your Kids

This is one thing that shocks me nearly every time I see it happen. Today I was at a high end store and a child, maybe 7 years old was eating a cookie. He dropped the cookie on the floor in front of the cash register and the mother saw him do it and didn't say a word. There were crumbs everywhere and a fairly large portion of the cookie as well and she didn't even pick it up! Not only that at one point, she stepped right on it making more of a mess all over the carpet in the lingerie department! I can't believe that parents will leave restaurant tables, booths, floors and airplane aisles destroyed by their children and not make the slightest effort to help clean it up. Wipe the table with a napkin to pick up the crumbs or at least pick up large things off the floor. Now I don't have children, but I was a nanny and spend lots of time with kids and would never think of leaving a public place such a mess. If you are too tired to clean up after your children in public then you probably should think twice before having them.

Do Right #3: Put Your Cart Back

How often have you seen parking lots filled with random shopping carts because people can't seem to walk them to the cart corral to put them back? They are banging into cars, sometimes even just on the loose and still moving or blocking entire parking spots. Why is it so hard to put back your shopping cart? I know, you got what you needed and now you just want to leave, but it takes two seconds and you do have legs right? Better yet, maybe when we are entering a store, we could offer to take someone's cart since we are going that way anyway or maybe even put away one of those carts that is floating freely around the parking lot. A few weeks ago, I saw a cart roll the entire length of a store and halfway across another parking lot passing about 20 people and not a single person stopped the cart or took it back to the store, until I finally went out of my way to get it. I somehow hope setting a good example might wear off on someone someday!

Do Right #2: Middle Man Gets Both Armrests

If you fly a lot, you probably know that being stuck in a middle seat on a plane is probably one of the most miserable places on earth. I would rather be getting a root canal than be stuck in a middle seat on a long flight. So what is the least we can do to help this poor soul stuck in the middle? Give up your middle armrest. Now for anyone who flies frequently this should be a fairly obvious courtesy, but I am always amazed when I see business people with their arms planted on that armrest like it is the last plot of free space on earth. Next time you are stuck in the middle and begging for some air and a place to set your arms, I hope the guy in the window or aisle seat is as kind as you have been.

Do Right #1: If you drop something, pick it up.

We will start easy. How often are you in a store and something falls on the floor? Maybe a sweater from a hanger? A bag of chips from a shelf? A ball from a bin? I am endlessly amazed and how people will look down and see they have dropped something and will not bend over to pick it up. Is this the real cause of obesity in America? Have we become so lazy that we can't bend over anymore and pick things up? What if everyone started putting things back that they dropped or better yet, started putting away things they didn't even drop?! People constantly complain about the price of things, but do we ever consider that by dropping something and have it stepped on, rolled over by shopping carts, broken or torn open that we are causing stores to lose more money and charge us more?

Stating The Obvious

I am starting this blog to state what I feel like is obvious, but I find more and more that the world has become a very self-absorbed place. We have forgotten what it means to be civilized, to be kind, to be generous, to be considerate, to be thoughtful, to be self-aware and to be decent. We are more worried about what is good for us. What will get us to work quicker? What is convenient for me? What is easier for me? What is most comfortable for me? So this is my personal revolution to create a better world, one very obvious and easy rule at a time. Things we once knew, but somehow forgot. So I hope you will follow and participate and help me change the world one little act at a time.