If we don't watch the store who will?

[Ray]

Serious misfortunes, originating in misrepresentation, frequently flow and spread before they can be dissipated by truth.

GEORGE WASHINGTON

It seems to me lately that too many of us no longer require facts to back up what we buy into. At the very time we are becoming more isolated from a variety of trusted news sources we are inundated with rumor, accusations, and unfounded gossip. It would not be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that so many of us find accepting what we would like to be true as being true.

The political ads today have made innuendo an art while placing value on winning at all cost without regard for the immorality of out of context misleading statements or in some cases even totally untrue reports. It is a terrible state we will find ourselves in when we no longer believe in earning our good fortune through accomplishment versus destroying the other guy in order for us to prevail.

What scares me the most is how many have abandoned the playing field because the game has become too dirty, when that happens we are left only with those who put themselves first with limited concern for others. Unfortunately there are many who follow the siren call of those who say “don’t worry, trust me, I’ll take care of you”, only to find that their trust was misplaced.

We must not quit listening and learning but in order to get it right we need to dig deeper than the noise we hear via rumor, spurious e-mails or single source news outlets. I think Socrates had the right idea, here are his thoughts.

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"

"Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be good idea to take a moment and filter what you’re going to say. That’s why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

"Well, no," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and…"

"All right," said Socrates. "So you don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now, let’s try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"

"Umm, no, on the contrary…"

"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about my friend, but you’re not certain it’s true. You may still pass the test though, because there’s one filter left—the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really."

"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true, nor good, nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"

~~~

Rumors are mostly a projection of the individual who started them.

ROYA R. RAD

~~~

A mother was showing her son how to zip up his coat. "The secret," she said, "is to get the left part of the zipper to fit in the other side before you try to zip it up."

The boy looked at her quizzically... "Why does it have to be a secret?"

~~~

A motivational sign at work: The beatings will continue until morale improves.

~~~

Grandma, when you and Grandpa had your first baby, did Grandpa ever handle the middle of the night feeding?"

"No. I always did that."

"That must have been before you had women's liberation."

"No, it was before we had baby bottles."

~~~

Quote from telephone inquiry "We're only hiring one summer intern this year and we won't start interviewing candidates for that position until the Boss' daughter finishes her summer classes.

~~~

A priest was sitting on the steps of the church one spring day enjoying the sunshine.  He saw a young boy approaching him on the sidewalk pulling a wagon.  Every few yards one of the wheels would fall off the wagon, the boy would say "Damn!" put the wheel back on, and continue down the street, and a wheel would fall off again a few yards later.

As the boy neared the steps, the priest saw this as an opportunity to make an impression on the boy, and stopped him.  "You know," he said to the boy, "when a wheel falls off your wagon, instead of using profanity, you should say 'Praise the Lord!' instead."  He went on to tell the boy how someone is always watching over us and how we should be careful to do the right thing at all times.

The boy acknowledged his words and thanked him, and went on down the street.  The priest stood there, feeling quite pleased with himself.  About 50 yards away from the steps, all four wheels fell off the wagon, the boy stopped, heaved a huge sigh, and said, "Praise the Lord!"  Instantly the wagon raised off the ground, all four wheels returned to their places.

Upon seeing this, the priest said, "Damn!"

~~~

"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person."

Germaine Greer

~~~

A site foreman had ten very lazy men working for him, so one day he decided to trick them into doing some work for a change. "I've got a really easy job today for the laziest one among you," he announced.  "Will the laziest man please put his hand up?"

Nine hands went up. "Why didn't you put your hand up?" he asked the tenth man.

"Too much trouble," came the reply.

~~~

"To err is human, but when the eraser wears out ahead of the pencil, you're overdoing it."

Josh Jenkins

~~~

At the height of a political corruption trial, the prosecuting attorney attacked a witness. "Isn't it true," he bellowed, "that you accepted five thousand dollars to compromise this case?"

The witness stared out the window as though he hadn't hear the question. "Isn't it true that you accepted five thousand dollars to compromise this case?" the lawyer repeated.

The witness still did not respond. Finally, the judge leaned over and said, "Sir, please answer the question."

"Oh," the startled witness said, "I'm sorry, Your Honor, I thought he was talking to you."

~~~

Alcohol and calculus don't mix. Never drink and derive.

~~~

An older lady is making her first visit to her new doctor's office. Before seeing the doctor she is required to fill-out forms. A nurse in the office offers to help her do this. The nurse starts by asking, "How old are you, Mrs. Silver?"

"None of your business," she responds. The nurse then says, "But the doctor must know your age for his records."

Mrs. Silver replies, "Okay. Well, first, multiply twenty by two, then add ten. Got that?"

"Yes." answers the nurse.

"All right, now subtract fifty, and tell me, what do you get?"

The nurse says, "Zero."

Mrs. Silver responds, "Right! And that's exactly the chance of me telling you my age."

~~~

They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening.

George Orwell

~~~

Stay well, do good work, and have fun.

 

Ray Mitchell

Indianapolis, Indiana

Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.

 

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