Help George - We're Desperate!

     Do you experience “outrage exhaustion” from politics these days? Sometimes I do. How different our bickering and backbiting are from George Washington’s approach. He was known to honor everyone, according to biographer Mason Locke Weems.     
     How did the general and president develop such humility? Some trace it to his schooling as a teen when he hand copied 110 “Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour.” These axioms, first developed by French Jesuits, are enjoying a surge of popularity today during our fractious times because we desperately need them.     
     Some are outdated  - “Spit not in the Fire, nor…Set your Feet upon the Fire especially if there be meat before it.” But most are applicable. Ponder these:     
     “Be not apt to relate news if you know not the truth thereof.” What a great maxim when considering whether to share a Facebook or Twitter post.     
     “Speak not injurious Words neither in Jest nor Earnest.” What a challenge to speak only words that build up and don’t tear down.     
     “Always Submit your Judgment to others with Modesty.” Am I willing to express my convictions with humility during this election season?
     Here’s my favorite: “Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.”     
     Imagine that this “celestial fire” burned within us again. By George, we’d be as civil as Washington.     
     All 110 of Washington’s rules are here. and a song that helps me shut my mouth when I should is here.