Blog 2781 – 06.10.2023

Pinocchio

With a cricket for a conscience, puppet would-be-boy Pinocchio negotiates some pretty treacherous waters and (pardon the triple pun) has a whale of a time doing it even if he does make a donkey of himself at least once. Like all little boys no matter their shape, size, or age Pinocchio has a tell – when he lies, his nose grows.

I have said and written more than a few times that whenever I hear anyone say, “I can tolerate anything but a liar that I make a mental note that that person has a particular problem telling the truth. I seems to me that like most vehicles that I have driven we all have blind spots and that we are usually the harshest critics of our own weaknesses whether we are fully aware of them or not.

The sad truth is “everybody lies” some are better at it than others but most of us have the salesman’s tell, easily as dead a give-away as Pinocchio’s nose. The old joke goes, “You know how you can tell when a salesman is lying? His lips are moving.”

Often we are unaware when we are not being totally truthful and even when we are we usually go to great length to hide our lies from ourselves and from others. The prophet came to King David to point out his great lie to him, always a delicate and dangerous mission. He told the king a little story about a poor man who had one precious little lamb that he loves as a pet and of a wealthy and ruthless neighbor who possessed great herds of sheep and had in his employ many shepherds to tend his sheep. The rich man was to entertain an important guest in his home and so order his men to seize the poor man’s prized lamb, slaughter it, and prepare it for the feast.

King David was enraged and said, “Who is the man? I will see he pays for this terrible crime.” And the prophet pointed his long finger at the king and pronounced, “You are the man.” King David had many lovely wives and concubines but took the one wife of one of his soldiers, and then had him killed to cover his crime. Nothing is hidden that shall not be revealed, no secret that shall not one day be shouted from the rooftops.

It is a good idea to watch our rage and indignation for clues to our own weaknesses and blind spots or as the Bible succinctly puts it, “Judge not lest ye (we) be judged.” It is pretty easy to pick on a little puppet would-be-boy for lying his way out of a tight spot or two, yet aren’t we all guilty of playing fast and loose with the facts sometimes.

In an eighties movie I re-watched yesterday a world-wise young New York woman says to an up and coming young man from Kansas when he is trying to prove with facts a business theory to her, “Nothing is true, there are only different opinions.” The young man replies, “In some states you can be arrested for saying things like that.” There may indeed be different opinions but there are no alternate “facts.”

The real problem is not lying so much as not owning-up to them when our lies are pointed out to us and then correcting them and making amends.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15TQspilzOlLpkHrXEHM19IlfRl3A5w7v/view?usp=drivesdk

Pinocchio