Eleven years ago today Pope John Paul II beatified the visionary peasant of Guadalupe Juan Hildalgo Diego . He is the humble middle-aged indian whom Our Lady appeared to and presented the miraculous tilma that continues the miracle still today above the high altar at the Guadalupe Basilica below Tepeyac Hill where Mary first appeared to Juan Diego asking for the end of human sacrifice. It was the both a culmination and a beginning. There are moments when it is very difficult to express one's views, for example, when a husband is asked how he likes his wife's new hat, or how he likes her new Italian haircut - which to him resembles unstrung spaghetti. Women, when faced with something they do not like, generally go into ecstasies of praise in order to cover up their real mind.
Men generally descend to monosyllables or a long grunt.
When a man gets mad at his wife at cards he generally calls her 'dear' but with such a coolness as to make her think she is a 'Frigidear'. Tact, in such difficult moments, does not mean lying, nor smoothness at the expense of truth, but it does mean circumspection.