Skip to main content

What are your personal habits like?


Are you guilty of this particular charming habit?  Back before social distancing and working from home, the number of people I noticed daily who could not seem to keep their digits out of their nostrils in public was truly stomach churning.  When did everyone start behaving like ill-bred toddlers in a sandbox?


Um, men?  We can be the most handsome, most physically fit, best dressed, highly educated, and most accomplished raconteurs around.  But you know what?  We're only as pleasant as our personal habits.  The kind of things you do when you're alone, or when you think no one is watching.  Personal habits might include everything from the condition in which you leave the bathroom following a shave and shower -- or after, ahem, using the facilities -- to making sure dirty clothing makes it into the hamper immediately upon removal, to how you behave at the table during mealtimes, to the state of your entryway and living space, to. . .  Fill in the bank. 

The point is, it maters not what sort of job you have, how much money you earn, the size of your house, the sort of vehicle you drive, or how cool you think you are.  As my now wife The Grand Duchess once observed many years ago about relationships in general, when we began dating seriously and were talking very broadly about things not necessarily relating to us as a couple, it is the little things that count.  Personal habits are those little things.  They can make, or break connections and relationships.  Familial, romantic, professional, or otherwise.  

Let's be completely honest for a moment.  We cannot fault others for doing anything possible to avoid time in the company of an inconsiderate, gross slob either at home behind closed doors, or in public.  It's time to back away from the current societal obsession that somehow equates disgusting behaviors with authenticity.  No, no, no gentlemen!  As part of the ongoing program to kick our everyday style several rungs up the socio-evolutionary ladder, it might, instead, be high time to take a long hard look at ourselves in the mirror and pay greater attention to, smarten up, and polish those personal habits.  Undoubtedly, there are also other personal habits you'll want to do your level best to suppress.  For longer than just a few days.  The people around us will appreciate the effort. 

To borrow a page from Michael Caine's book, "Know what I mean?"

-- Heinz-Ulrich

Comments

  1. Amen, Heinz-Ulrich.

    “The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.”

    ― John Wooden

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

All opinions are welcome here. Even those that differ from mine. But let's keep it clean and civil, please.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

Popular Posts

Avoid Careless Chatter. . .

    E specially about the personal details of our lives.  There is a lot that OUGHT to be kept more private in 2022 than has become the accepted norm for many.  With the conscious and intentional cultivation of classic style in mind, however, we want to avoid oversharing and keep a bit more of ourselves to ourselves.  Exactly what personal information and how much of it to keep private seems to be a slippery concept though.  Here’s my take based on what I was told and observed as a child and young person at home.  Basically, one should keep oneself to oneself in all respects (finances, personal worth, accomplishments, politics, sex, dirty laundry, etc.).  As my late father used to advise when we were very small, and I am talking preschool and kindergarten, there were particular subjects that were not discussed outside the immediate family.  There is a time and place for sharing certain details of one’s life, but most of the time, those should be played very close to the chest,

Chilly Late April Wednesday Attire. . .

    Y ou know, if it is going to remain this cold and blustery, I need about eight inches of snow for some more cross-country skiing.  But since the white stuff is long gone, it was time to fish through the cedar closet down in Zum Stollenkeller and pull out some cold weather attire for a seasonal reboot.   But I decided to forgo the usual gray herringbone jacket from J.  Press (my go-to tweed  sports jacket) and instead opted for this number from Hart, Schaffner, and Marx plus the tan cords that hang on the same hanger, so strenuous mental effort was not required.  Pressed the shirt after tucking in the Young Master last night at 8:30, grabbed these shoes, and socks, and Bob is your mother's brother as they say.   Occasionally gazing through the large library window to my immediate left this morning, and I keep hearing that old Jobim tune drift through my mind this morning (aided by the windmills), as sung by Astrud Gilberto ( together with Leonard Cohen and Paolo Conte, the musi

The Pleasaures of a Well-trained Dog. . .

  A few final photographs from my visit to my sister in Washington, D.C. last week.  These include  one of 'Mr. Beau,' my sister's meticulously trained and truly wonderful Doberman, another of my sister, second cousin, step-father, and yours truly on the steps of the church outside Lexington, North Carolina just after our late mother's interment service, two of me solo at the National Cathedral, and a final one of my sister and me hamming it up during a long evening walk the day before I returned to Michigan. My sister routinely walks to the cathedral, about three blocks from her place, to enjoy the grounds and gardens.  The Bishop's Garden, in particular, is a place she likes to sit for quiet contemplation and internal dialogues with our late maternal grandparents and mother, very much in keeping with the Episcopal side of things.  Our grandfather, who was raised Methodist, became an Episcopalian when he married our grandmother.   Before you ask, I am not sure tha