A few months ago,  I had a story I had written about a visit to Newport, Rhode Island, published on TangoDiva.com, an online woman’s travel magazine. The story was about my tour of one Newport’s beautiful mansions, and exploring the importance of etiquette in the late 19th century.  During the Victorian age, etiquette was integrated into people’s daily lives–it defined the person/the family. Unfortunately, the importance of etiquette has been thrown away with so many other things.

Here’s a good example. The other day, I was taking my dog, Nikki out for a walk. We boarded the elevator in our apartment building. Nikki quietly stood next to me, eager to go out for her walk when a gentleman who I had never met before decided it was appropriate to make a comment directly pointed at her, “She’s a rather big dog to live in an apartment,” he said.  Though, I was a bit offended by this stranger’s comment, I simply replied, “she is very happy.” He simply gave me a blank stare looked back Nikki and then at me. We got off the elevator and went in separate directions.

What gave this person the right to make such a statement? Why couldn’t he had just said “Good Morning,” or stood there and minded his own business?

I never ended up seeing him again-thank goodness, but then again, most probably his mother never taught him, “If you can’t say something nice then don’t say anything at all.”