Manners

Manners. Please and Thank you. Is that all there is to manners? I read somewhere that manners are a social lubricant. There are no social lubricants for instant messages or email even. But as I said in my presentation, Verbal Impact, we can send email messages that look like formal letters in real life. I no longer send email messages without salutations. That’s the email you get from your boss that says:

Meeting at 3:00pm. Attendance mandatory.

Even if I send an email to a group, I like to start with “Hello Everyone” or “Salutations!” My latest kick is alliterative greetings, like Dear Lovely Lenore or Dear Persistent Pete. It’s fun to think up greetings that are profound, accurate or even just silly. I had a hard time thinking of an appropriate adjective for my friend Ron when I wanted to send him a message. All I could think of was Rambunctious or Rude and they didn’t quite fit. I think I grabbed my handy dictionary and browsed thru it for a more appropriate salutation. I found Regal and Royal. People seem to like them. I enjoy the greetings they send me in return. I got one recently saying Dear Gorgeous Gloria! It really has a positive impact and I think it gets the person to actually read the rest of the message!

Thank you for reading.