Southern Formality

We live in a time that is structurlessly informal and yet hyper-sensitive to the rule of etiquette.
Our popular culture represents a casual lifestyle as the ideal, and there is a praise of informal ease.
However, it renders many adrift who, too late, realize the errors of formless function.
The number of etiquette lessons, rule books, cotillions, and advice columns in the last ten years is a testament to the realization of what has been lost. A loss of what used to be simple, proper upbringing.
There is an inherent ease to formal living too few realize.
There is a security which comes from knowing what to expect and what is expected.