Please and Thank You.

Thank you. Two words, two syllables, ingrained into our minds by the people who raised us, and quite often over looked and underestimated. They express gratitude, they show acknowledgment to another for an impact they had on your life. As children we were taught that this was the most important word we could ever speak, but it goes hand in hand with another word, this one not so easy.

Please. The hardest word you will ever speak, and because of that, it is hardly ever spoken. It is a request, a favor, a pleading. It is vulnerability. Humanity as a whole would love to never have to utter such a word. To do so would mean to put yourself in another's hands and leave yourself open for rejection.

Society has become cruel and cold hearted, equating favors with mooching and turning away those truly in need. Please is laughed at, and the resulting hurt kills what would have been a closely following thank you. We live in an age ruled by money and driven by the philosophy "Whats in it for me?". We wait for others to give us something before we even consider giving them something in return, when truly it should be the other way around. We should be helping those who ask without a second thought, not turning them away because they may not have any way to help us. Why do people steal? Because they need something and they're too afraid to ask. Why are they too afraid to ask? Because they've been taught that if they make themselves vulnerable with please, their thank you will never be heard over the laughter and rejection. That knowledge catches the words in their throats and fills them with resentment.

It is this lack of mutual respect and compassion that is stimulating all the hate and cruelty evident in our society today. We hardly have any good examples of true morality any more, religion is corrupt, politics are seedy and slight handed, parents beat each other and divorce, and the school system is stripped down to a jail of math and science until the "liberating" age of eighteen. How can we tell people not to steal if we refuse to satisfy their choked out please? How can we tell people not to rape if we have no good example of respect and compassion to show them? How can we tell gay people what love is if the rates of domestic violence and divorce make it obvious that we have no clue either? How can we yell and fight about how society is falling to pieces when the answer to our problems is something we refuse to do on a daily basis?

Hear the please. Receive the thank you. Show the world that the heart is not only a beating, bleeding muscle, but a compassionate, giving, uplifting and selfless attitude. Change how we view each other, be the example others need. Help turn humanity from the divided, screaming pit of self serving monsters it is back into the unified, warm, encouraging family we know it can be. By satisfying the please, you take away the resentment and warm the jaded heart. By receiving the thank you, you are receiving the only thing you should ever want in return, acknowledgement and gratitude for the impact you've had on someone's life. Help me transform humanity.

Please.