Did we in fact change anything? Is it important to wait in line? Can we change the behavior of the people around us by changing our own behavior? I don't know.

My own minor, rather frivolous, contribution to the creation of the new diplomatic jargon -- pubic diplomacy -- did not appeal to the wordmasters of the universe. But it does occasionally appears as a typo in some U.S. Embassy internal memoranda.

Much of science, medicine, mathematics, theater, music and art come to us from ancient Greece, representing the highest of human virtues. This fascinating world of Gods, majestic temples, and stunning antiquities will be the experience of a lifetime.

Feeling the pull of Thanksgiving's meaning, I got up early Thursday and headed not for the kitchen, but to an eclectic gathering of locals in our small British Columbia town. We are intent on welcoming Syrian refugee families into our community.

TORONTO -- If Muslims feel involved in the French destiny and France has nothing to fear from Islam, the result of this shared human horizon of empathy could be the acknowledgement of the "otherness" of each other, and the acceptance of the fact that the price of a plural and democratic France is neither a strategy of fear nor a politics of hatred. It is the affirmation of the empathic nature of French civilization and the criticism of the monist stance of a group like the Islamic State.