The "Last Gentleman in the World"

Sorry for my recent absence. Life gets busy, work requires travel, and I don't have the time I usually do to think and post, but with travel comes new experiences and new stories.

So I was on a bus the other day taking me from the airport to the car rental building. It was a cold day and people were cramming into the bus, taking whatever standing room there was left to get where they were going and get out of the cold.

There was an older Gentleman sitting near where I was standing and a number of other people, mostly woman, holding the hand rails and waiting for the bus to depart.

The thought occurred to me that none of the men had offered to stand and let any of the women sit down, and there were a number of older women on the bus who looked as if they could have used a seat rather than having to support themselves with a handrail on a moving vehicle.

Just then the old man stood up and offered another older woman his seat. She graciously accepted. Another woman who was standing beside her remarked to the man that he must be the "last Gentleman in the World."

Why is this so rare? Was it the woman's liberation movement? Are men no longer taught to care about others? Is it a population thing? Are we becoming more and more numb to the number of unknown people who cross our paths daily?

Its the little things that make someone stand out and kindness should never go out of style.

-J. Eliot

traveler