Wearily upward

There are a couple of phrases in English (and other languages, I'm sure), that just outright contradicts what the words actually mean. Things like "I'm not racist, but..." or "I don't mean to interfere, but..." or even "I'm fine, thanks," when asked how one is doing. This, for me, is the worst one: "I shouldn't say this, but..." I hate it because there's a sense that using this phrase makes whatever follows okay to say. It's like using a tea towel to lessen a hammer blow. And then justifying hurtful and unnecessary words by adding "I'm just being honest" adds fuel to the fire of frustration slowly burning around the edges of my patience. In a couple of sentences the speaker has gone from "I should remain silent," to "I'm not even sorry I didn't remain silent." There's a lot in the Bible about the tongue, our words and how we use them. They have great power (Proverbs 1...

My daughter is very generous. Mostly with other people's stuff... and by 'other people' I mean me. My daughter is very generous with my stuff. I think she takes after her mother... I'M JUST KIDDING! Anyway... It's one thing to be generous with our own property. It's something else to be generous with things that belong to other people. I think the latter is called fraud or stealing... or plagiarism (don't quote me on that...). And though one of those are wrong, we often do it when it comes to owning up to mistakes. It's much easier - convenient - to ignore our own mistakes and move on, rather than owning up and taking responsibility for our actions. It's far more comfortable to accept mercy before confessing than it is to acknowledge our own frailty and failure. I've done it. I still do at times. And it is wrong. As R.M. Harrington put it: "I once thought myself a good man, a man of high standards, and a man of strong moral fiber but...