Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 02:11:24 EDT

From: Julia Cochran COCPROFS[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UGA.CC.UGA.EDU

Subject: Re: - no subject (01IP5OGNV35Q8X2EE4) -



On Thu, 23 Oct 1997 19:57:44 -0400 Beverly Flanigan said:

Michael's right, of course; "Bless you" is the subjunctive wish that

God may bless you. And I agree with Peter that the speaker may or may

not be religious and has no reason to know whether or not I am. Mine

is a kneejerk reaction to childhood "blessings" and admonitions, I

suppose--so all right already, I'll start saying "Thank you"!



The childhood admonitions...now those are a topic unto themselves, and so often

paired with the "blessings" that it's easy to throw the proverbial baby out

with the equally proverbial bathwater. I recall one immediately, regarding

a certain Bible verse that reads that one should never call another person a

"fool." Relying on the King James translation, we assumed that there was some-

thing almost magically evil about the noun "fool," and never dared

use it to refer to anyone present or absent. Yet, we never hesitated to call

playmates "stupid idiots" and the like.