Today's Discussion on Lakoff

Today's discussion on Lakoff really left me a bit inspired. As I thought about it on my drive home from class, I thought of a few ideas I should have bought up in class, but unfortunately didn't think of them at the time. Therefore, my post for this week will include my "afterthoughts" of today's discussion.
My first epiphany, I guess you could say, has to do with our talk about apologies. Someone mentioned that sometimes an apology is unwanted or unneeded. For example, if someone rear-ends you in traffic and they get out of their car and say "I'm sorry" it doesn't matter, it won't fix my broken rear fender that now has to ride shotgun until I can get it replaced. HOWEVER, if you were in that situation, and the person that rear-ended you just got out of their car and stared at their handiwork, wouldn't you get a bit angry that they didn't apologize for their mistake? It may make you think that they don't care, or even meant to do it. In a situation like this, sometimes an apology is better than no apology at all, whether or not it is accepted.
Secondly, our discussion about common sense and the norm. It is difficult anymore to say what exactly is common sense or the norm. Is common sense simply knowing that a green light means "go" and red "stop"? Or is it more geared toward how one should live their life totally? What kind of car we should drive, what type of house we should live in, how big our salaries are. Common sense/norm is such a broad subject now, it is hard to define exactly what it is.
Well anyway, I'm thinking of exploring both these topics in next week's post about my final paper idea.
Until then...