Favorite Passages: "the simplest greeting"

So true.

What pleasure in the simplest greeting. It's as thought one friend says to another, "How good is it to say 'How are you?'" The other replying, "When I answer 'I am well and how are you,' what I really mean to say is that I'm delighted to have a chance to say these familiar things--they bridge the lonely distances."

-- The Names