Give Them My Best

One social nicety I’ve never really cared about giving or receiving is the “give them my best” message. Every so often someone will tell me that so-and-so gives me “their best” and I never have a response to that other than “okay, thanks.” I mean we don’t go around wishing people the worst; so it kind of goes with out saying that people generally want the best for others.

Sometimes someone will tell me to give this message of goodwill to another and I nod and say “okay”…but I’m lying; I don’t relay that message. No one knows one way or another if I give that message, and to me it’s an unnecessary message. It’s like getting a generic “thinking of you” card with a signature; there’s no personalization to the message, just a somewhat thoughtful yet bland gesture.

To me, this gesture of goodwill is a throwback to when people didn’t have direct means of communication (I’m thinking Laura Ingalls’ time when people lived miles apart). When people were unable to call others on the phone (let alone email), so having a third-party relay messages made more sense (because that actually would be the quickest way to give another their regards).

But now we do have many means of communication, so anyone can give anyone else “their best” without someone else (e.g. me) being in the middle of it. I’m not a message board to give and retrieve messages (and let’s be honest, I’m a terribly unreliable message board at that). So if you want to give someone your best, then go ahead and do it directly to that person and cut the middleman out.

Being Polite to Your Own Detriment

Sometimes it’s hard to say no when food is offered to you. You want to be polite, so you end up eating a little something extra that you hadn’t planned on. Recently I ate (and quickly regretted) a slice of sheet cake; this slice of birthday cake was just placed in front of me so I felt obligated to eat it (even though I’m not a fan of sheet cake). And while I removed most of the half inch thick slab of frosting, there still managed to be enough sugar within the cake and filling itself to give me a sugar headache. I felt light headed and tired and miserable; I paid the price for my inability to say “no thank you”.

We’re currently in one of the most dangerous food times of the year: the holiday season. We’re constantly surrounded by food; everyone just seems to want to feed you because food brings happiness to people. So there’s always an array of cookies, chocolates, toffees, caramels, candies and every other kind of bad for you sweet treat imaginable at family gatherings, holiday parties, at work or gifted to you to “enjoy”. [Pause.] It’s a lot of sugar.

I admit sometimes I can’t resist and will readily accept the offer of a tasty treat. I try not to go overboard but some of it is just so good that I’ll eat more than I should. I may hit my sugar limit and stop, or sometimes I may exceed that limit. I tend to exceed that limit more often if someone made something themselves, because it seems especially rude to decline that homemade treat (as though you think they’re a terrible cook), so you have to at least try it. Sometimes it’s just easier to accept what’s given to you, even though it’d be better for you if you just politely declined.