American Modesty
Americans, when it comes to our bodies are a modest lot. I don't know where it comes from. Why in a society where we readily plaster an image of a scantily dressed person on a billboard do we have such a sense of personal modesty? I think for the most part Americans don't see this in ourselves. It is only when we travel around the world and look back do we realize how modest we really are. My first lesson in this came in Europe as a student. I was traveling one summer with my back pack on my back through the great capitals of western civilization. From time to time I would meet other wayward travelers and we would decide to journey with each other for a few days if we were headed in the same direction. Usually the experience resulted in an address being exchanged and a commitment to stay in touch that would never be maintained. After a few years we would look through our address books and wonder just who that name belonged to. At any rate, I remember meeting two men