"Leave well enough, alone"

This is an old saying from my childhood. To be told this by my mother was a polite way of her saying “Shut up, you’ve already said too much!” Delightfully burdened with only fond memories of her presence, I feel free to indulge. It was the recent furniture store visit which set me to thinking. I won't leave well enough alone. Thinking about how people leave their mark.

My feelings on the robber barons, past and present, who leave such “gifts” as Carnegie Hall, are mixed.

The amenity is often appreciated, but the naming.... Why aren’t they named after some of the workers who died to make the amassed fortunes? My hero and companion in this line of thought, since schooldays, has always been Shelley, and the way he celebrated the once noble Ozymandias.

I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies.........

Enough. Back to the furniture store and sofas. The latter word apparently coming from Turkish into English almost 300 years ago. But what about ottoman, and chesterfield? And to a lesser degree, davenport? The world's population lolling about comfortably on them with the Sunday paper. Wouldn’t this be a fine way to have one’s name remembered.?