When I retired as a humanist celebrant I thought I'd stop writing this blog, but my fascination with all things death-related prompted more posts. They're just written from a slightly different perspective, that's all. Oh, and I still do the odd one, by special request.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Manners maketh man (or woman)

Supposing you were bereaved in tragic circumstances. Supposing you received condolence cards and letters (as most people do), and one was from a local person you didn't know very well. He might have felt compelled to write because he'd been bereaved himself, and wanted to express his sympathy, as people do.

The letter contained spelling mistakes, it was untidy, it misspelled your surname. Would you post in on the parish noticeboard with the errors marked in red? Would you tell everyone you knew about it, and humiliate its author?

Of course not. Only a bad-mannered, socially inept person would do something like that. No one who knew what you'd done would ever want to write to you again.

3 comments:

The Limit said...

Quite right.

quedula said...

I agree but I blame the Sun mainly.

Margaret Nelson said...

Watched 'Have I got news for you' earlier. Apparently the Sun referred to Mrs Janes as Mrs Jones on their website, and had to apologise. The consensus was that their story wasn't well received by a majority.