A stranger holding the elevator, the door, the bus: small courtesies keep a city decent. Return them.

Courtesy between strangers is a system with no enforcement. Nobody makes a person hold a door, and the whole arrangement runs on each individual deciding the two seconds are worth it, which is why it works beautifully in some places and not at all in others. Small decency is contagious, and so is its absence. Every instance is a quiet vote for the kind of place you live in.

Return them deliberately this week. Hold the door, hold the elevator, let the person with two bags go first. And say thank you out loud when it happens to you, because that is what keeps the habit alive.