PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

In one of my previous blogs, I wrote about a lesson I learned from one of my bosses years ago. It was this: Every day, try to thank someone for doing something that helped you.

Just a bit of etiquette? Yes. But a good one.

Then, last week, I read a post from a professor at Drexel University. It appeared in the Wall Street Journal under the headline, “The Lost Art of the Apology Letter.”

The piece began this way:

“’Dear Mr. and Mrs. DiGioia,’ ,the letter begins. ‘We received a phone call from Sachs Dress Shop in New Haven today inquiring about the ‘duns’ we mailed to you. We immediately investigated the matter, and found, to our extreme chagrin, that $2 payment which you had made was mis-posted on our records to some one else’s account. This explanation is not intended as an excuse, for there can be no excuse for such errors, even though they do occur due to the tens of thousands of accounts which we handle.’”

The writer went on to say that such apology letters tend to be few and far between these days. She labeled the rarity the “disappearance of civility.”

I could add that, beyond thanks you and apology letters, civility is often missing from politics in America these days. That is no doubt due, in large part, to the most uncivil of presidents in our history, Donald Trump.

That is why one of my favorite quotes is attributed to General Colin Powell when he decided, a few years ago, not to run for president. Then he “bemoaned the loss of civility in politics.” Just imagine what he would say today!

The apology letter advocate when on to say that she bemoaned “the growing tendency toward thoughtless or rude behavior. Even seemingly well-brought-up people these days fail to write thank-you notes (or even emails) in response to gifts. They neglect to RSVP to invitations to parties (or even weddings). They act nasty on-line (or even in person) toward people who happen to disagree.”

Back to the lesson I learned some years ago. Try to say thank you to someone every day and you’ll be the better for it.