Not to worry?

Graciousness can pay priceless dividends.

And it doesn't cost a thing.

You may have heard the story about what happened between White House adviser Valerie Jarrett and Four-star Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli at a recent Washington dinner.

As reported by the website Daily Caller, Jarrett, a longtime Chicago friend of President Obama, was seated at the dinner when a general -- later identified as Chiarelli, the No. 2-ranking general in the U.S. Army hierarchy, who was also a guest at the gathering -- walked behind her. Chiarelli was in full dress uniform.

Jarrett, apparently only seeing Chiarelli's striped uniform pants, thought that he was a waiter. She asked him to get her a glass of wine.

She was said to be mortified as soon as she realized her mistake, and who wouldn't be? But the instructive part of this tale is what Chiarelli did next.

Rather than take offense, or try to make Jarrett feel small for her blunder, the general, in good humor, went and poured her a glass of wine. It was evident that he wanted to defuse the awkward moment, and to let Jarrett know that she should not feel embarrassed.

 

It was just his way of hitting on her.

Actually, it's obviously not as big a deal as these media stories have made it out to be. No doubt he's secure enough with his position (and manhood, etc) that this was just the natural thing for him to do on an occasion such as this. (If it had been some sort of military briefing where he was "on duty," he might have handled it somewhat differently -- with class, for sure, but differently.)

HPH

 

I would have got her a glass of wine.

 

If you read the article there were a few other similar stories. Most folks are gracious....not all though.

 

I heard a general officer was mistaken as a doorman in NYC and asked to get a cab. He graciously did. I think people who are secure are not easily offended. They will always exude gracious spirit. Kudos to GEN Chiarelli!

 

As my grandmother would have said, "Good Gracious"

 

Of couse, gracious is the adjective form of grace. Grace has a lot of Biblical connections and is often a subject of sermons. I think that it usually has a lot to do with "forgiveness". On another note, consider the great song "Amazing Grace".

Sadly, I fear that grace has gone out of fashion today....along with many elements of "civility".

 

Years ago while boarding a flight on a business trip on American Airlines I had just put my dark blue suit jacket in the overhead bin. I was wearing a blue and white striped shirt similar to what AA's flight attendants wore back then. A woman a few rows up turned around and asked me to fetch her a blanket and pillow, which I did. After I handed it to her and returned to my seat she was obviously a bit embarrassed after she realized that I was not one of the flight attendants.

It turned out well. One of the flight attendants saw what happened and latter in the flight when I ordered a cocktail she told me that she would be right back. She went up to first class (where they did not have to account for the alcohol) and I drank for free for the rest of the flight.