(A special post for SundayScribblings)
I have a challenge sometimes with literal-ness - For example, I was tasked with writing about the things that you would never write about.
Right off the bat - you can see the problem. Once you write about it, you wrote about it...and the word "never" was just negated.
I also have a problem with the word - NEVER
It actually goes deeper - I hold trust and truth very deeply in my core values set. Can I honestly say that I have never told a lie? Of course not. I don't believe any of us can. We start to get into that area of debate of what constitutes a lie. "It was a little white lie, so it wasn't a lie." "I lied to spare their feelings, so it wasn't a lie."
Hey...a lie is a lie - and I have told some lies and I will probably lie again.
But, I try not to - because it is a violation of my core value of trust. If someone lies, how can you trust them?
"But, Nutster, everyone lies. You just said so. Does that mean that you don't trust anyone?" - boy, what a way to live that would be. We all must trust. Without trust, intimate relationships are not possible. Yet, I do have a tendency to be extremely careful with my trust. Trust is not freely given in Nutsterville. It is earned.
Now, let's get back to the root of the problem of this writing assignment - it really is the word "never". What if I was to say that I would never write about something. Let's pick a topic. Child abuse.
"I would never write about child abuse" - if I make that claim, I feel like I have just put a limit on myself. I have put it out there for the world to see......and go back and look at and hold it against me should I violate my statement. As I sit here today, I could easily say that I wouldn't write about child abuse. What happens next week when I encounter a situation of child abuse that is so horrific that I have to get it out into my mass readership? Doing so might save a child's life somewhere...it could happen. But...I had the commitment...
....I really dislike breaking commitments - so, my solution? I make fewer of them.
Which is better? - to make 10 commitments and keep 8? or to make 5 and keep all 5? Which side of that coin do you want to stand on? You do know that you stand on one of the sides whether you actually have ever said that you do or not. Player A got more done....but he broke trust twice. Player B was very trustworthy....but paled in comparison on the accomplishment scale.
Oh, how easy it is to twist our minds in knots - isn't it?
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9 comments:
Too easy. Great post!
Were you by any chance on a debate team in college?
I'm stunned. To paraphrase Monty Python, you've "run rings around me logically!"
^5! I totally agree.
It's a challenge, isn't it? You have to trust, but there's always doubt? You hit it right on the head?
Methinks you think too much about these issues, my literal-minded friend. :) No really, great post which made me smile with your wise words.
Good heavens. My head hurts now.
But, good points.
Such sage wisdom---you expressed the delimma of us all with this topic---you said it well---really put it in a "nut"shell
I had a problem with this topic too, so I twisted it and wrote about it in a way that I could...why the hell not!
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