Drop please for a day

Today I suggest dropping that redundant blurt: please.

Would you do something for me please, is the shortened version of the original, if it pleases you – would you do something for me if it pleases you, implies the person you’re asking is too much of an idiot not to know they have a choice without you reminding them. It actually constitutes a subtle yet insidious form of arrogance.

Would you pass me the butter, asked respectfully is every bit as polite as would you pass me the butter if it pleases you/please – especially if you adjust the tone of the last syllable to sound as if you’re saying please.

And of course say thank you once they do pass the butter or whatever it is you want them to do. I’m not exhorting you to rudeness. Merely to facilitate gaps in the habitual.

For in these gaps will you rediscover your true self, whence springs all your personal power and, by extension, all the myriad opportunities that are your true birthright.

May you discover such power in the gaps, it stuns you.

Love, D