Behave As We Should

If only the good were clever,

If only the clever were good,

The world would be better than ever

We thought that it possibly could.

But, alas, it is seldom or never

That either behave as they should:

For the good are so harsh to the clever,

The clever so rude to the good.

-Elizabeth Wordsworth

Lately, pretty much every time I drive somewhere, walk around, or wait in a line, this poem by Elizabeth Wordsworth (the great-niece of William Wordsworth) glides into my mind and how easily tiny things get in the way of people being kind and well-behaved toward one another. I see it everyday. The poem is so true. While everyone has places to be and many things to attend to, I ponder, when crossing at the crosswalk at the same intersection every morning downtown, how there is always a person in a car who seems to want to run me over if it allows him/her to get to their destination three seconds faster. Why don't we behave as we should? What good does it do to be harsh or rude?
This is a meager example, as there are many more important situations, so we should pay attention to how we treat people we encounter everyday. Sometimes your small action of goodness will permeate to all other surrounding people. And mostly likely, each person was hoping for something good to happen in their day.
Oh yes, we all have much to work on....

Let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. -1 John 3. 18