{bon mot} monday | be nice

 

Yesterday was more than just the last full day of summer, it was also the last day of the Maritime Festival in the seaside village I call home. For 25 years, the Maritime Festival has become the last hurrah for hordes of tourists to spend time in Greenport.

Yes, thousands of people visit throughout the summer, and a steady trickle will continue to venture out for pumpkin picking, wine tasting, holiday shopping and maybe even visiting during one of the months we have to shiver through to get to spring. But, there’s nothing quite like the sheer density of the throngs that wander through Greenport’s  closed streets for two days each September.

I joined those wanderers for a few hours each day, and each time I heard a complaint about rude, entitled tourists and/ or rude, exhausted locals, I thought about this quote from Austin Kleon’s brilliant book STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST: “Be nice. (The world is a small town.)”  No matter how much things change, manners will always matter, and being nice is a universal language.

As summer fades into fall, I’ll carry memories of the countless acts of niceness I witnessed or experienced this season and let go of the less than stellar moments.  Why? Because I was born in a small town, and I live in a small town . . . the one you live in, too.  (And, because I’m so nice, I’m not including an audio clip of me belting out John Mellencamp’s “Small Town.”  You don’t know how lucky you are!)