I'm quite fond of manners. I think manners help make just about everything and everybody work better. "Please and thank you" go a long way in making life more pleasant. "Sorry" quiets things down real quick. Yes, I like manners.

At work I sit next to a polite young lady who often gets the hiccups. Next to her sits another young lady who several times a day sneezes in loud high sequences. Along with the hiccups and the sneezes, "excuse me" and "bless you" fill the air space over our cubicles daily by the dozens.

Manners allow folks to work and live and share small spaces together.

I heard a delightful poem read on the radio yesterday. The woman poet described sitting next to a large man on the airplane. From the poet's description, the man more than filled his allotted space with his big frame. Yet the poet sensed her seat companion's deliberate efforts to respect her space in that shared confine and to manage his big arms and legs accordingly.

Manners fill in where awkward seeks to take hold.

The firm for which I work occupies a fourth of the floor in the high rise where the business is located. The rest of the floor is leased by a high tech computer firm. Everyone from the two firms all ride the same elevator, share the same public wash rooms. But that's about it.

All of the employees at the high tech firm are young. None of the fellows wear ties. Blue jeans are quite common. In fact, I'd swear that pajama bottoms seem to be allowed. I like these young people, I like their energy. I speak to a number of them on a regular basis as we pass in the halls. But I see where these young workers' connection to technology impacts everyday manners.

Waiting for the elevator, or traveling up and down in it, the youthful tech employees are lost in their own world. They are separate from the rest of us with whom they share space. These workers are either talking on their cell phone, checking e-mail on their Blackberry or they are in their own zone listening to music over their ear phones.

I think manners suggests otherwise. As ancient as it seems, it seems rude to me to shut the immediate world out, to ignore those with whom you share small spaces. In a world where everyone abides in their micro defined private space there is less community, less connection, less safety and less communication.

Manners help preserve community, connection, safety and communication. Manners help remind us of the where and how we fit into community.

I saw an example of that just yesterday.

The morning newspapers are delivered to both front doors of the firm where I work and our high tech neighbor firm. At my office, whoever is first through the front door picks up the morning papers and places them on one of the conference tables.

There's no rule, no memo, no understanding about the morning papers - this is just what happens in our office community.

At the high tech firm, the receptionist gets the papers. I didn't know that until yesterday. During the course of the day I noticed that the tech's papers where still piled up outside their wide open front door. But I also noted that the receptionist was not in at all during the day. Her post was vacant.

Last night, when I left the office, the tech's were all gone for the day. The newspapers were still lying in the hall, waiting to be picked up. Dozens of folks had walked past and over those papers for an entire business day. But it wasn't their job to pick the papers up, and so they didn't. The task simply went undone.

Manners contribute to community. They promote connection and communication. Manners make for a safer environment. Manners are far more powerful than they are credited. And who would have thought, manners actually help get the newspaper delivered!