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Good Morning. When Kate Hitchens boarded a busy train home from London this week she was astonished to find that no one gave up their seat as she attempted to breast feed her baby. In a blog post featured yesterday on the �鶹�� News website she urged people to show “common courtesy” when they see someone who needs a seat and to offer them one.[1] Kate’s predicament pinpointed a common problem – namely, that many people wait for someone else to do it first. But sometimes it’s not any kind of selfishness which prevents us from standing up and offering our seat to someone else – it’s the fear of the possible consequences if our gesture backfires. Only once have I had my head bitten off after I offered someone a seat on the tube. “So I look as if I need it, do I?” said a lady in a very loud voice. There was nothing to be done. Since then, unless I clearly see a baby on board badge I admit that I hesitate. But Gogglebox contributor Mary Killen was also quoted yesterday as saying: “it’s worth getting you head snapped off because these little acts of recognition of other humans are of such value”. So what do we do? I was thinking how the Bible is packed with advice about how we should treat each other from Jesus’ observation that everyone is our neighbour and it’s no good saying you believe in God if you don’t consider your neighbour’s needs – to St Paul’s famously telling off the church at Philippi which seemed, at times, prone to being very selfish– do nothing from selfishness, he warns them before adding and don’t look out only for yourself! But putting the biblical teaching into action on a Manchester tram or a bus in Birmingham is another thing altogether in today’s society. Dr Oliver Scott Curry, of Oxford University believes all is not lost. For sure, he agrees that everyone is often waiting for someone else to make the first move in offering someone else a seat – what he calls just passing the buck- but he also sometimes witnesses what he describes as “competitive helping” – a carriage full of people going out of their way to give up their space for a stranger. However, in order for Kate Hitchen’s experience not to be repeated we have to accept and take seriously the potential fear that, by actually being that good neighbour and making an on the spot judgment call, we might yet experience rudeness and/or rejection. If we were all to be good neighbours and offer a seat which, in turn, was graciously accepted or declined, then perhaps more people like Kate might experience the kindness and common courtesy she rightly craves. [1] /news/uk-45432583