d.: Okay, y’all Cal.E. is back in hiding and neither of us has seen the movie “The Batman” yet. The sandwich shop was also slow. So, no spoilers.
In Cal.E.’s extended absence, I would like to continue with common sayings and if they are true or false today.
“All that glitters is not gold. I think anyone over the age of ten can agree that this is a true statement. Many things look good on the surface and turn out to be the worst thing possible. Moving on.
‘’One is only responsible for oneself. If only this were true. It is usually said to a small child when s/he is tattling on a younger sibling. The younger sibling may then do something REALLY dangerous, and the older sibling may use this as an excuse not to tell the adults in the house what is happening. For instance, a young girl may tattle that her younger sister, who is still a toddler and exploring and experimenting to learn, pulled her hair. The parent will then tell the older child that she must deal with the situation on her own. The younger sibling then pulls a heavy object down from a shelf because a cord has been left dangling from it. It (hopefully) misses both siblings and crashes to the floor. The parent then asks the older child why she didn’t inform the adult about the dangerous situation in which the younger sibling was involved. “I thought that you said I was only responsible for my own actions,” is a common reply. Young children do not have the reasoning power to know when and when not to tattle. People who drive through neighborhoods with their bright lights on, blinding oncoming traffic, though, are NOT small children, as a rule. If that driver causes the other driver to have an accident, is s/he responsible for it? Or is the first driver free to drive on, since that driver was not involved in the accident? Moving on…
“Don’t believe anything you hear and only one-half of what you see. Truer words were never spoken. There is a game (whose name escapes me at the moment), that is geared toward new acquaintances getting to know each other better. The first player is supposed to utter two statements, one true and one false. The other person is supposed to guess which statement is true and which is false. As any child of any age knows, there is an element of truth to every good lie (As in, no, Daddy, I did NOT put anything in the toilet TODAY! {When the toilet will not flush properly and the plumber is telling the adult that someone put a toy, brush, etc. down the toilet. When my sons were grown, they admitted that the toys had been dropped into the toilet one week before the plumber came out on a VERY expensive service call.})
Back to the game. Since the object is for the other person to get to know you better, I may say that I am a pediatric nurse. This would be the false statement. I may then say that I am the father of three. That would be the true statement. I AM a nurse (as well as a father of three) but I work with (supposed) adults. The other player would then know two things about me, not just one.
To address the original statement, though, people (like me) who are a little hard of hearing tend to read lips. (Imagine my frustration for the last two years when everyone was wearing masks during face-to-face conversations). In this case, I would not believe ANYTHING I saw or heard, because I would be seeing the person talk. Also, sometimes we misunderstand what we see. Two people kissing may look like they are in love. They may actually be kissing and saying goodbye to each other for the last time.
“If you cannot say anything good, do not say anything at all.” I disagree with this statement, to some degree. There is a line between constructive criticism and destructive criticism, though. For instance, when the puppy was drowning in the warden’s pool, Cal.E. could have said, “Great stroke, puppy. You look marvelous!” And the puppy would have drowned. By the same token, she could have said, “You dumb dog, you will never be able to swim with THAT stroke!” And the puppy still would have drowned. What Cal.E. did was give constructive criticism. She told the puppy what he was doing wrong, and how to correct the problem. Cal.E. told the warden's puppy to put his front paws six inches closer together, and he would be able to swim. The puppy learned how to swim properly because of what Cal.E. told him. If he accidentally fell in the pool again, he would not panic, because he would know how to swim to the side of the pool and climb out, thanks to Cal.E.’s constructive criticism.
This has been d.c. scot. Please join me (and possibly Cal.E.) tomorrow for more food for thought.
Comments