WHY DOESN'T ANYBODY HAVE ANY MANNERS ANYMORE?

"And Jesus answering said,  Were there not ten cleansed,  but where are the nine?" (Luke 17:17)

That passage comes from the story of the healing of the ten lepers.  Jesus told the ten lepers to go and show themselves to the priests.  In starting off to GO to the priests, they HAD to assume that by the time they arrived, they'd be healed.  Otherwise, the priests would not want the lepers anywhere NEAR them.  In fact, the lepers, WERE healed and long before they arrived at the Temple.  ONE decided to go back and show Jesus his appreciation for the healing.  Even Jesus seems to have been surprised.  You'd think ALL of the lepers who'd been healed would have come back to Jesus with an "attitude of gratitude" but only one out of ten did.

My experience in the Twenty-First Century is that things aren't much different.  Only about ten percent of people show any GENUINE appreciation for what you do for them.  I'm an avid e-mailer AND I'm still a pretty faithful writer of cards, postcards, and even "snail mails".  There's an entertaining recording I made in early 2005 entitled, "My Calling Card" which contains several of my best stories.  I've made over seventy copies of that tape and have given them out to various friends and acquaintances.  Statistically, only about one out of ten have communicated with me in ANY way to express any feedback about the stories on the tape.  E-mails after e-mails to folks go unanswered.  Same with letters.  I wonder, "What am I, a LEPER?"  (oops, this piece has come full circle!)

We're all so busy.  We're all so self-absorbed.  Honestly, we're TOO busy and TOO self-absorbed.  I marvel at all the clergy running around entering "stuff" into their "Palm Pilots".  (I don't have a Palm Pilot.  I just use a pen and little calendar as though it was the year 1966!)  Over the past two weeks, two of my pastor friends have rattled off stories of their Palm Pilot failures.  One TOTALLY crashed.  The other malfunctioned in one area only but caused him all kinds of consternation.  As long as I hear those stories, I absolutely will NOT have a Palm Pilot, but it amazes me that guys will give so much attention to their Palm Pilots, but can't answer an e-mail, or can't say, "Hey I got that tape you sent me-thanks!"

It used to really annoy my late mother that my Dad did a lot of favors for people and many never showed any appreciation.  One exception was Italian immigrant Carmelo Felice of Hyde Park, MA.  Dad did many favors for him, and he was most grateful.  A housepainter, Carmelo painted my parents' house in Canton several times for NOTHING.  My mother used to call Carmelo, "The one leper who came back."

I shouldn't even have to write this, but here goes:  Acknowledge gifts to you.  Answer e-mails promptly.  Answer mail.  Say thank you.  Act like other people matter to you- even if they don't at least ACT like they do.  If I convince most of the people who read this piece to DO this stuff, I will be so moved emotionally, I'll probably be sobbing like a baby, and I'm serious!