RAOK No. 4 – Be unfailingly polite to every single person you meet.
Ok first off, there seems to be some concern about me not succeeding in my 3rd RAOK. People have suggested that I failed as I only offered and did not give the pizza delivery man a slice. I am sorry. It may just be because I am polite that I did not force it on to him. I do not see it as a failure because he did not accept; I see it as a success because it is still a random act of kindness to offer an un-expecting delivery man a slice of pizza. Nonetheless, this spurred me on to fulfill todays RAOK in great detail.
Generally, I believe myself to be a polite person, however, today I had to be unfailingly polite to everyone.
At 2.00 AM my phone rang. I was tucked up in bed after my cup of Horlicks fast asleep dreaming about butterflies flying. The piercing noise of my ring tone made all the butterflies fly away and I came crashing down to reality.
The person on the other end of the phone was in need of a chaperone to walk her home from the bus stop. I of course obliged, naturally. It wasn’t until I left the house that it occurred to me that it was passed 12.00, therefore, day 4 of my RAOK. I know I could have politely refused to walk my friend home, however, I saw this as a sign that it was meant to be. Because of this I felt even better for walking my friend home.
I got back home and soon started dreaming about daffodils in the snow.
I was not at University today, and was therefore not likely to bump into many people to have to be polite to. So my housemates decided to make up for that. I spent most of my day offering cups of tea, biscuits, cucumber sandwiches and foot rubs. For some reason none of them wanted a foot rub, but the cucumber sandwiches were a hit.
I managed to escape the tea duties for half an hour or so, so I decided to go for a run. This would be a good opportunity to meet more people to be polite to.
I started off by smiling at all the other fellow runners. None smiled back. I then stopped at a bench to have a stretch. An old man was sitting on the bench smoking a pipe. I smiled at him and wished him a good day. ‘Lovely day to relax in the park’. Again nothing back, other than a little nod.
I was on the home straight heading towards the Peckham Palace and a little child started running alongside me. I smiled at him and started cheering him along. I saw his parents just in front looking rather worried so I smiled at them and gave them a little wave. Well well, that was it. They clearly didn’t like me being so friendly. They called their child back and told him off for running about and talking to a stranger… Stranger danger!!
It turns out people living in and around the Peckham area don’t like you being overly polite. This is a shame and I fully intend to crack this trend in all good time.
