Respect

 

Interesting to speculate on how much this word is worth.

Clearly there is a feeling aspect to the notion of respect.

For example, most people respect fire on account of the

immediate consequences connected with not respecting it.

Likewise for traffic lights.  

On a social level, of course, the concept of respect is 

often connected to authority.  Of course, the issue of 

authority is somewhat complicated, but more often

than not authority is associated with institutions of

various types and so an element of complexity is

connected to it. Often there is the question: 

"Who is in charge here?"

But certainly in personal relationships, by which

I mean the relationships of individuals respecting others

plays a key role.  At least for me it seems the

more respect to have for someone, and the more

respect you can show, the better goes the relationship,

and in contrast to actions or feelings connected

with dis-respect are good indicators of relationships

that won't go so well.  

Another level or arena is self respect, which is

probably, over time, one of the hardest areas

to make respect and have respect work well.

Also, at some level I believe that it is closely

connected to the notion of love and therefore

also probably connected to the notion of compassion

and also the " odd duck " we call empathy.

Finally, it should be pretty clear that in many situations

respect is something that very often we can not live

without on many levels.