Renaissance folklore generally associates the name McCasoway with those who mourn a father lost at sea: "...the son of a man wrecked upon a sand..." In more ancient traditions the name is said to connote "...the son of an expendable man," or by extension "...a dispensable son." The soundness of these legends cannot be assured. However, it is clear amid all the conquests, blood feuds, revolutions, and the grave other follies of history, with the indifferent recklessness appropriate for dispensability, an unforgivable sum have been cast away. In this sense, we are all McCasoways.
