Whatever one of us asked the other to do - it was assumed the asker would weigh all the consequences - the other would do. Thus one might wake the other in the night and ask for a cup of water; and the other would peacefully (and sleepily) fetch it. We, in fact, defined courtesy as 'a cup of water in the night'. And we considered it a very great courtesy to ask for the cup as well as to fetch it. . Sheldon Vanauken
About This Quote

For those of us who have been raised in a culture that is generally not as friendly as our own, courtesy is a very foreign concept. The idea of a man willingly going out of his way to help someone else without expecting anything in return seems so foreign and foreign to be a very loving and generous thing. In Japan, however, courtesy is a part of their culture and it is expected that the man would do the same for the woman he loves. If a Japanese man wakes his lady in the night to give her water, she will generally sleep peacefully because she knows that he will also do the same for her when she wants to get up.

Source: A Severe Mercy: A Story Of Faith, Tragedy And Triumph

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