Hello, as usual I have a question to put to you, but first let me tell you about something that happened last night. My friend John and myself were both at a loose end, we had both been stuck indoors all day, which for people like us is tantamount to torture, I called him up and said "John do you fancy coming to my place for beer?", it was decided fairly quickly that that would be the only thing to do on a night as tempestuous as it was. We talked about the various small plannings before he arrived like, do we need to drive to town for anything, you know, just the normal stuff. All was decided and he was on his way, he lives about ten miles away from me so I had enough time to dig out a couple of old lp's and the chess board. Halfway through doing this I got a call, It was John and I could tell he was outside and a touch out of breath and naturally I asked him if he was o.k. and he said "Mate a bloody tree has fallen in the road, I'll be a bit longer" "oh" says I "where are you I'll come and give you a hand" "down near the Ridgeway cross" says he. I grabbed my coat and hat and picked up my axe from the wood shed on my way to the front gate of my garden and headed down the road on foot as John was now only half a mile from my house, but before I had even been walking for two minutes the headlights of Johns car shone on the stand of oak trees that mark where the well metaled road starts. He pulled up and wound down his window and said to jump in out of what was rapidly changing from rain to snow, "What happened then mate, did someone else tun up and help?" says I "they did" says he. We dropped down into town to grab a few things for the nights quiet revelry and it was only when we were settled back at mine that it struck me. "John" says I "big tree was it?" "not really" says he "I could have driven around it in that old car of mine but the next person to come may have hit it, and we don't want that mate" "well no, that's why I was on my way, give you a hand and get the poxy thing out of the road anyway you know". I sat quietly and thought for a while and my pensive silence must have been louder than the music as John turned in his chair and said "What's up mate, you look vexed", "Well John, you stopped to move that tree because it was the right thing to do yeah?", "yeah!", "and so did the other people, yeah?", "well yeah", "and I was on my way for the same reason, yeah?", "I know, but what's wrong mate?", "there was a man in the shops and he dropped a couple of pennies on the floor and I picked them up and gave them back to him", "and?", "and he did not say thank you! John". John said nothing about that, he looked sad and I felt sad and guilty that I had told him, as a lack of common courtesy can hurt people that care without realizing. We put on a more lively record and reminisced about a boat trip we took a few years earlier and the rest of the night went well as they always do and will. My question to you is, when courtesy costs nothing why have people stopped giving it away? It's no good thinking please and thank you and saying nothing, and it's no good watching bad things happen and thinking "I should have done something"          
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