The Art of Being Cordial

In the past 4 years I have discovered that there is an art to being cordial. And like all art, not everyone is capable of accomplishing the task. I'm polite to people, usually. Nice even, most of the time. Does that mean I like everyone? Not. A. Chance. I'd say that a few more times to get the point across but I'm going to assume you can just reread it if necessary. Being polite and cordial is not something I practiced, it is an inborn skill. I always find myself thinking that deep down I don't know what the person being ugly is going through, and forgiving them on technicalities. If that doesn't work, I think how I feel when someone says hateful things to me and that is usually enough to prevent me from opening my mouth and letting fly. Lately, I've started wondering if that is a good thing though. The world has gotten rude and cruel. People are mean for the sake of it and rude because they are angry, whether it's at you or someone else. There are less and less people who will be polite because it's the right thing to do and I've started wondering if I should be one of those people who fights fire with fire. So far, I have managed not to....most of the time. I'm not perfect, a couple times I've lost my temper completely and said every ugly, nasty, hateful, unkind thing in my mind. It hurts me to think back on that, because once it's out, you can never unsay it. Even if you apologize, it is out there forever. I think I will keep it the way it is now. It does come across as weak sometimes, but I'm happier appearing weak to those who don't know any better than I would be if I became one of those people who used words as a weapon.