Be Excellent to Each Other

What's the difference between roast beef and pea soup?
Anyone can roast beef.



"Be excellent to each other." That bit of wisdom comes from a Mr. Bill S. Preston, Esquire. If you aren't familiar with Mr. Preston... well, maybe you should take some time to familiarize yourself with your cultural heritage. Bill's impromptu address to a group of dignitaries stands out, in my mind, as one of the highlights of his academic sojourn with Mr. Ted "Theodore" Logan. Many disparage the two for what may be perceived as a lack of eloquence or subtlety, but I would challenge any of my multitude of readers to find fault with their landmark thesis statement, mentioned above, a mantra by which they led their lives.

In day to day life, it is easy to find examples of discourtesy, disrespect, and outright malevolence. In fact, just recently, a friend's car was vandalized in the parking lot of her apartment complex. Whether a random act, or retaliation for a noise complaint, it matters not. A person, or persons, went out of their way to intentionally inconvenience another person. Not very excellent at all.

Behaviors akin to the incident above can easily give us the impression that the world is full of jerks. Unfortunately, that attitude doesn't lend itself to our own random acts of excellence towards our fellow man. To curb the lack of excellence, I would like to propose a "No Jerks" policy on life.

The rules are simple:

1) Be excellent to each other.
2) No jerks

That's it boys and girls. Nothing could be simpler. But before you come at me with all the reasons this might not work, let me explain my policy a bit. We'll start at the beginning.

Be excellent to each other. Am I advocating altruism? Should we run around doing charity work for no personal benefit? If you like, I suppose you can. Personally, I'm not sure I believe in a truly altruistic act. All I'm asking is that you try to be polite towards everyone you meet throughout the day, and to try to do someone a favor every now and again. If someone is nice to you, say "Thank you," and pay it forward.

No jerks. Don't be one. Play fair, be polite, and treat folks how you would like to be treated. "But Kyle, what if I run into a jerk?" That is an excellent question. Take a page out of the good book on that one. Turn the other cheek. Maybe this jerk is simply having a bad day. Give him or her the benefit of the doubt. Vent to a friend if you must, but don't let said jerk ruin your day, hour, or minute. Keep in mind, however, that any given person only has two cheeks. I believe there is a famous aphorism which goes, "Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, sleep with one eye open, because I'm coming for you when you least expect it." Tell the jerk in no uncertain terms, that you will not allow them to interfere with you being excellent towards other people.

There it is folks. Be excellent to each other. Words by which one may live.




p.s.

Keep your eyes open. I hear something is afoot at the Circle K.