Thomas Andrew Lehrer, American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician, in his comedy music album: “That Was the Year That Was” (1965), speaking on the subject of a lady named Alma he says (to much applause): “Speaking of love, one problem that recurs more and more frequently these days, in books and plays and movies, is the inability of people to communicate with the people they love: husbands and wives who can’t communicate, children who can’t communicate with their parents, and so on. And the characters in these books and plays and so on, and in real life, I might add, spend hours bemoaning the fact that they can’t communicate. I feel that if a person can’t communicate, the very least he can do is to shut up.”¹

I don’t know which is more difficult to endure, the person who talks and talks about all the things they can’t do, or the one who jabbers on and on about what they can do. I imagine the only thing that can make it worse is when you have two people who are trying to outdo each other on what they can or cannot do. The simplest rule to remember is this: Don’t offer to tell anyone what you can or cannot do until you are asked. – Dr. Robert R Seyda