by Michael d'Esterre | As a child I learned order and cleanliness as a way of peace and perfection. “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” my mother used to say.

When I was four years old and living in the Philippines, there was an elderly man who would come around our street once or twice a month to beg for food. He was ill and had a difficult time speaking. Nobody in the neighborhood seemed to know his name. Every time he came, my Lolo, or grandfather, greeted him with a hearty "Hello My Friend!" From then on, all of us children called him "My Friend".