Wow, NO RESPONSE! 

I wonder why?

I don’t get what you mean by that "no response" comment, Lin. A conscience is a *good thing* to have! (just ask Jiminy Cricket if you don’t believe me. : ) And, common sense, I might not have much but I wish I did, it is one good way to avoid appearing stupid, boorish or much worse, mean. And sadly, sometimes I do really teeter on that line and it *always* upsets me to think I may have offended someone by acting in a way or saying something that from me was just an innocent, silly comment. So "toeing the line?" A necessary precaution to avoid muddying the landscape because I really am haunted when I think I have hurt someone by my own unthought-out actions. It helps immensely to feel that little nudge "beforehand" and if not? Well, what can you do? Use the guilt to try to remember that sometimes what we say may not be understood by another because they don’t know "us!" (and think first!) - especially here in an e-mail context. It is not cowardly, I believe, to be as wise as serpents (common sense) and as gentle as doves (conscience). It is first-class wisdom of the highest (ahem) order. : )

Southern Baptist guilt… How funny!  I too was raised on it and boy, does it ever stick!

Sure, I  have things in my distant past that I’d just as soon not become public, but then again I don’t put myself in a position where it would matter.  I stay safely under the radar and don’t see anyone going to the effort to go digging in my life.  It’s not that they’d find anything too catastrophic, but much like many young people today, "conscience and common sense" was much easier to block out of my mind when I was 20-something.  Skewed priorities have a way of talking louder than common sense, even if we know better.