Common Courtesy

I have found common courtesy to be none too common, and it pisses me off. Is it so hard to hold open a door? Does English language instruction no longer include please and thank you? Has the Internet caused people to believe they are alone in the world? Today, Seren and I were in Lowes. Most days find Seren and I in Lowes at least once. And most days the people in Lowes know we're there. Seren has taken to spontaneous screaming, usually when she is in a good mood but, a little bored. Seren has not yet been won over by the charms of Lowes, with the exception of the ceiling fan aisle, so unless I am shopping for ceiling fans, we are putting on some variation of our two man (man being used in its broadest incarnations) show. Today was no exception. Instead of shopping for ceiling fans, I bought paint from a trainee (we were rolling around on the paint counter by the time my paint was ready) and wallpaper remover, which was hiding in the wallpaper aisle. I had two or three other items on my list, but I am a realist. Besides, if I bought every item on my list today, what would I look for tomorrow? Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), by the time we made it to the cashier we were acting out a scene from King Kong (I was the skyscraper). We were third in line. Directly in front of me were a rather plump couple with a cart full of stuff, lots of little stuff. It turns out they were in the midst of putting together a bedroom for their daughter. They smiled at Seren, and then proceeded to take their turn at the cashier. Seren smiled back, and then resumed swatting at the planes which apparently were circling rather close to my ears. Apparently they were raised by wolves; wolves with really well stocked hunting grounds. It never occurred to them to let the man being climbed by a toddler and purchasing two items go first. In my charitable moment, which was long after I loudly instructed Seren on the importance of common courtesy, I concluded that they were either deaf or victims of some doctor that was nostalgic for the era of the lobotomy. Maybe people are just so self-centered, that other people and their needs just never occur to them. It just strikes me as so easy to acknowledge that there are people sharing the world with you, and to treat those people with a modicum of respect and generosity. I don't have textual support for this contention. I don't need it. It just seems to be something I can do that makes the world a nicer place for me and my children to inhabit. Really it's selfish. I want to be let into the flow of traffic when I'm merging in from a side street, so I let other people in. I wish there was some way I could make America a more considerate place. I can teach Seren how to behave, but that would seem to have a limited impact. Yelling and cursing at people, while satisfying, is almost always completely ineffective. Maybe there is nothing I can do but be pissed. That I do really well.