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                 I read a story recently about a woman who got on a crowded subway in New York City.  When a man got up and offered her a seat, the surprise was so great that she fainted.  When the woman recovered she said, “thank you”, and the man fainted.                 I suspect that this story isn’t true.  Well at least, I am reasonably sure it isn’t.  But one wonders how much of it is really exaggerated!!  It seems that in our society common courtesy and simple gratitude seem to be so rare that […]

In the famous story of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare raised the now famous question, “What is in a name?”  And in the next sentence he gave his equally famous answer, “That which we call a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet.” In his poetic language, Shakespeare was saying that names, in and of themselves, have no meaning.  And in our western culture that is largely true.  Names are simply labels that are applied to people for purposes of identification.  They are sometimes chosen by association as when a child is named after some relative or friend.  At […]