For Email, The Old Postcard

One Should Not Be Assigned One's Identity In Society By The Job Slot One Happens To Fill. If We Truly Believe In The Dignity Of Labor, Any Task Can Be Performed With Equal Pride Because None Can Demean The Basic Dignity Of A Human Being.

Do You Have A Kinder, More Adaptable Friend In The Food World Than Soup? Who Soothes You When You Are Ill? Who Refuses To Leave You When You Are Impoverished And Stretches Its Resources To Give A Hearty Sustenance And Cheer? Who Warms You In The Winter And Cools You In The Summer? Yet Who Also Is Capable Of Doing Honor To Your Richest Table And Impressing Your Most Demanding Guests? Soup Does Its Loyal Best, No Matter What Undignified Conditions Are Imposed Upon It. You Don't Catch Steak Hanging Around When You're Poor And Sick, Do You?

Society Cannot Exist Without Etiquette ... It Never Has, And Until Our Own Century, Everybody Knew That.

Shame Is The Proper Reaction When One Has Purposefully Violated The Accepted Behavior Of Society. Inflicting It Is Etiquette's Response When Its Rules Are Disobeyed. The Law Has All Kinds Of Nasty Ways Of Retaliating When It Is Disregarded, But Etiquette Has Only A Sense Of Social Shame To Deter People From Treating Others In Ways They Know Are Wrong. So Naturally Miss Manners Wants To Maintain The Sense Of Shame. Some Forms Of Discomfort Are Fully Justified, And The Person Who Feels Shame Ought To Be Dealing With Removing Its Causes Rather Than Seeking To Relieve The Symptoms.

Only A Person Who Considers Himself Too Good For You Is Good Enough.