Archive for the ‘honesty’ Tag
Do you consider yourself a truthful person? As a young person I thought I was always truthful but as I aged, I discovered just how wrong I was. There have been many times that I used exaggeration to make a point clearer and more interesting but in fact that is actually being somewhat untruthful. I think I can safely say that everyone at one time or another plays fast and loose with the truth for any number of reasons. Here is a collection of comments and quotations about the truth that make a great deal of sense.
- “The trouble with stretching the truth is that it’s apt to snap back.” Anonymous
- “Truth is such a rare thing; it is delightful to tell it.” Emily Dickinson
- “The man who speaks the truth is always at ease.” Persian Proverb
- “If you speak the truth have a foot in the stirrup.” Turkish Proverb
- “Truth is the anvil which has worn out many a hammer.” Anonymous
- “Everyone loves the truth, but not everyone tells it.” Yiddish Proverb
- “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” Winston Churchill
- “Craft must have clothes, but truth lives to go naked.” Thomas Fuller
- “Truth is heavy; few therefore can bear it.” Hebrew Proverb
- “Seldom any splendid story is wholly true.” Anonymous
And finally, a quote from one of my favorite people: Mark Twain
“When in doubt, tell the truth.“
And here’s one of my own:
“Always tell the truth and do the right thing regardless of the consequences.”
THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE
I have upon occasion been called a sarcastic smartass. Truth be told, I’ve been called that on many occasions by many people and I wear that mantle with pride. It probably will explain this post that concerns two of my all-time favorite people, Oscar Wilde and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), two of the most famous smartasses in the world. History calls them humorists, rascals, and intellectuals but that’s just history being kind. They took biting humor and sarcasm to new levels and did it in such a way as to make people love and respect them. Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about that. Here’s a little personal information on Oscar with a collection of his quotes.
Oscar Fingal O’Flaherty Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s.
- “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
- “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
- “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
- “I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.”
- “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
- “If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.”
- “It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.”
- “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
- “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.”
- “Never love anyone who treats you like you’re ordinary.”
Now for a little taste of Mark Twain. He was a good old down-home boy who had the ability to make politicians shiver in their boots and the rest of us to laugh at his humorous way of seeing things.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), best known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the “greatest humorist the United States has produced”. Here a a few pearls of wisdom from Mark.
- “The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.”
- “A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.”
- “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
- “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
- “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
- “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”
- “Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.”
- “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
Back in my college days when I thought I knew everything but really didn’t, I had a professor once ask me what person living or dead would I like to sit down and have a meaningful conversation with. I can’t remember my answer but I’m sure it was stupid and meaningless because at that time I was totally clueless. If I could communicate with him now these two gentlemen would be my first and second choices. Better yet, I’d love to have them both sitting with me in a corner of a dark quiet pub sharing a bottle of brandy or bourbon and puffing on a cigar to discuss the state of the world or anything else they’d like to tell me.
As Always
SMARTASSES RULE!
My post yesterday turned into something unexpected for me. I sat with my better-half last night and went through the fifteen questions. I had fairly reasonable answers for most of the questions and the discussion was fun and informative. I was surprised by some of her answers, and she was just as surprised about some of mine. One question in particular I had a difficult time answering because I had to give it some serious thought. The question was “What person do you admire most?” I finally came up with my answer later in the evening, the individual that I admired most was my maternal grandfather.
Most of my early life from ages five through twelve required me to spend a great deal of time with my grandfather and he was a great role model. He worked an absolutely horrible job for US Steel in a Pittsburgh area steel mill which eventually was responsible for his death. He spent more than thirty years being lowered into recently emptied hot steel molds. He had no safety equipment for the most part and was lowered into hundred plus degree molds on a bosun’s chair. He then used a grinder to clear slag from the mold so it could be reused. He worked hard his whole life, took care of his family, was brutally honest in his dealings with everyone, and he passed all of his work ethic and honesty directly to me. That’s a gift that I’ve been using for more than sixty-five years, and I wish he was still around so I could thank him for it.
Here’s a picture taken of him in the early 1940’s.
I certainly hope some of you take the time for some self-reflection and that these lists I’ll be posting over the next few months are the perfect tool to help get the conversations started. Not only will you get to know your partner or spouse better, but they will also get to know you as well.
R.I.P. GRANDPA
“Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings, those who cheer
today will curse tomorrow; only one thing endures – character.”
Horace Greeley (1811-1872)
It’s been ten years this month that Andy Rooney passed away. I’ve been thinking for a few days on exactly how I wanted to memorialize him. A standard review of his resume doesn’t do him justice. I wanted to thank him more than anything for the interesting insights he gave me while sitting and enjoying his essays.
I was never a big fan of 60 Minutes from the start because I felt at times they were dishonest and biased despite what they claimed. I can count on one hand how many of their shows I actually watched in their entirety. That being said, I tried never to miss an Andy Rooney segment if at all possible. He brought to the table many years of experience which helped make him special. His downright honesty was the first thing I noticed and appreciated. He spoke of things as he saw them and didn’t tolerate biases and prejudices and all the other crap the majority of journalists do. I’ve always felt that he, like Jerry Seinfeld, had that special view of things along with an excellent means of communicating them to millions of people with humor and honesty.
If the three of us were in a room together that was full of stacks of old books here’s what would happen. Seinfeld would write a 30 minute long TV episode about how people stacked books. I would attempt to explain how certain book stackers irritated me. Andy would take certain information from some of those books and weave a five-minute story that would make you laugh and capture your imagination at the same time. He had a knack!
I’ve missed him a lot over the years but I’ll never forget the pleasurable moments he gave me every Sunday night. Shalom and Aloha Andy and thanks again.
RIP
I’m spending this rainy morning in bed for at least another hour because watching old reruns of Sports Night has become part of my morning routine. It was a show I enjoyed watching back in 2000 even though I’m really not a sports guy. The show still holds up pretty well and the inane patter between the characters still makes me smile.
Have any of you noticed just how many of the old shows seem to be resurfacing on such a large number of channels. It started two years ago for me when I stumbled upon reruns of Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. I never missed that show as a kid and thoroughly enjoyed watching all of the episodes once again. Is it a little lame? Absolutely! Is it an easy and relaxing half hour? Absolutely! Then followed Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, Dragnet, One Adam 12, and a host of others. I began to wonder why it was happening so frequently.
Can it be that the networks are beginning to see a change in viewing habits? Is it possible that the ratings for these old shows are higher than those of the half hour long commercials that seem to be on every channel? Is it more fun to spend a relaxing half hour watching a show where the good guys always win and the bad guys always lose? Can it be that people are sick to death of watching hour long shows about corrupt politicians, corrupt police officers, heroic serial killers like Dexter or pedophiles who aren’t responsible for their criminal behavior and blame everything on society? It’s a politically correct "No-No" watching those old shows where it’s celebrated to be patriotic, honest, religious, and a responsible citizen.
God forbid anyone should love their country and voice it out loud these days. We wouldn’t want to piss off the media elite who decide what we should be watching and how to think. How can the Mainstream Media possibly maintain control of the masses and continue to dictate our politics, morals, and outlook on life when we’d rather watch Joe Friday or the Lone Ranger doing the right thing no matter what. I think our kids would certainly benefit from a stream of positive role models, don’t you?
I find myself drawn to those simpler and more honest shows even though they aren’t up to speed with all of the politically correct crap we’re being fed these days. Maybe it’s time for the people of this country to once again hear some positive messages instead of the constant in-your-face drumbeat of commercials, reality shows, and just plain crap that’s filling the airways.
Find that cable channel that’s decided to step back and regain some simple and positive programming and support them. When their ratings begin to climb the advertising money will soon follow. More money begets more of the same type of programming and all of us and our kids are the winners.
As I’ve stated many times in the past I just love talking to kids. The only thing you can be absolutely sure of in those conversations is receiving unedited answers which are what they perceive to be the truth. They are almost always funny and and direct, an ability that most adults have lost due to decades of political correct indoctrination. I try to enjoy conversing with kids before they age enough to become guarded, jaded, and uninteresting, much like their parents.
I’ve posted before with kid’s thoughts on Christmas, Love and Marriage, and other subjects. The information contained in this post was collected by a first grade teacher who took a collection of well-known proverbs and split them into two parts. Each child in her class was supplied with the first half of a proverb, and then asked to complete it. Their insight as always makes me smile. Here we go.
Better to be safe than . . . . Punch a 5th grader.
Strike while the . . . . Bug is close.
It’s always darkest before . . . . Daylight Savings Time.
Never underestimate the power of . . . . Termites.
You can lead a horse to water but . . . . how?
Don’t bite the hand that . . . . looks dirty.
No news is . . . . impossible.
A miss is as good as a . . . . Mr.
You can’t teach an old dog new . . . . math.
If you lie down with dogs, you . . . . stink in the morning.
Love all, trust . . . . me.
The pen is mightier than the . . . . pigs.
An idle mind is . . . . the best way to relax.
Where there’s smoke there’s . . . . Pollution.
Happy the bride who . . . . gets all the presents.
A penny saved is . . . . not much.
Two’s company, three’s . . . . the Musketeers.
Don’t put off till tomorrow what . . . . you put on to go to bed.
Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and . . . . you have to blow your nose.
None are so blind as . . . . Helen Keller.
Children should be seen and not . . . . spanked or grounded.
If at first you don’t succeed . . . . get new batteries.
You get out of something what you . . . . see pictured on the box.
When the blind leadeth the blind . . . . get out of the way.
It’s unfortunate that almost all of us lose the ability to be frank and honest as we age. I spent a career trying to be frank and honest and I paid a heavy price for it at times. I consistently attempted to follow my late father’s #1 rule. It’s nothing from the Bible or any other religious organization, just a plain and simple statement to help set the course for my life. ‘”ALWAYS DO THE RIGHT THING, REGARDLESS OF THE CONSEQUENCES”. It’s not an easy thing to do because most people claim to want honesty from everyone until they get it, then it can get ugly. Kids are pure and uncontaminated by the ugliness of the human condition and it does the heart good for those of us already contaminated to remember those days.
everyuselessthing.com 