Civil

Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.
~ Benjamin Franklin

I heard a paraphrase of this Benjamin Franklin adage last night on the television show Numb3rs and it got me to thinking. The paraphrase was something like this, "be civil to all, social to many and friend to few." I think they should have included the enemy to none, but I don't think it would work real well for a crime solving drama when they are catching the bad guys, who naturally become an enemy.

Without really knowing of this adage before, this is how I see my life. I do try to be civil to all; I would rather think that most people are good and error on the side of being good to them and being burned once in a while than miss the opportunity of meeting someone nice by thinking most people are not nice. I try to be cordial and/or social to most people for the same aforementioned reason; blogging to the couple of handful of readers that I have kind of also covers the social part. I am more like the paraphrase I heard, friend to few, rather than familiar to few and friend to one. I can count my friends on one hand, but there is only one person, other than God, who truly knows who I, and that is my wife, Yvonne. I try to be an enemy to none, but I know that everyone is not going to like me, and that really does not bother me too much.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. And remember to be civil to everyone.