Good ol' fashioned "I Give a Damn-ness"

I just ate a hotel restaurant -- not a fancy hotel by any stretch, very much a burger and sandwich type of place -- and was stricken by what seems to be a far receding quality in our country today.

Good ol' fashioned "I Give a Damn-ness".

Our waiter had it. He was friendly, nice, attentive, jocular and genuinely affable. But not intrusive. Not heavy-handed. He was just a notably good waiter, which is not rare if you are eating at a 5 star restaurant, but the lower you go on the cost scale of the food service industry, the lower (invariably) the service you expect.

And I am sorry, but all of us have eaten at the mall or the airport or wherever and just been shocked by how incredibly absent the sense of "I Give a Damn-ness" is.

And why does it seem to me that more and more of my experiences of patronage -- when I fly, when I check out at the local grocery store, when I drop big bucks at Target stocking up on stuff I need in my life -- are suffering from a giant lack of Good ol' fashioned "I Give a Damn-ness"?

Because, make no mistake, it is lacking. Of this I am convinced. And then I realize, well, it ain't like we are teaching Good ol' fashioned "I Give a Damn-ness" in our schools.

I mean sure, some of us are. And sure, I think it's kind of implied that we ought to teach this in our national school system. But teaching Good ol' fashioned "I Give a Damn-ness" is not some kind of overt, direct objective. It's not mandated. It's not a... dare I say it... a standard.

And personally, I kinda gotta ask, why not? (Otherwise you get people who write things using words like "kinda gotta" -- it's calamitous!!)

I mean Good ol' fashioned "I Give a Damn-ness" applies to everyone and everything and I believe if you can cultivate this quality in a kid and help them to make it a habit in their life, for the rest of their life -- no matter what they ever decide to professionally pursue -- they will be better off for it.

Plumbers who exhibit Good ol' fashioned "I Give a Damn-ness" make for better plumbers than those who do not display Good ol' fashioned "I Give a Damn-ness". Cooks who display Good ol' fashioned "I Give a Damn-ness" make for betters cooks than those who do not display Good ol' fashioned "I Give a Damn-ness". From police officers to manicurists to, yep... you guessed it, TEACHERS and LIBRARIANS, those that display Good ol' fashioned "I Give a Damn-ness" inevitably perform their job at a much higher level than those who do not display this quality.

Matter of fact, can one ever really ascend to the top of their chosen arena without Good ol' fashioned "I Give a Damn-ness"?

That's rhetorical, cause I am not sure you can. Talent and skill are simply not enough. In this world, you gotta Good ol' fashioned "I Give a Damn-ness" ... or you ain't gonna have much at all.