Truth be Told

So I drove by myself yesterday, coming home from my visit at "Mommy's".  There is a certain amount of time that it is safe to be in a car alone, and four to five hours is the maximum.  That is how long the trip to "Mommy's" takes one way.  Not bad, in good weather but I have not had good weather making this trip for over a year.  I have traveled it through white outs, ice, and monsoons.  Yesterday, I got to add flooding and fog to the list.  After five hours alone in a car, you start doing weird things, like talking to the vehicles and counting mile markers.  Your thoughts get a little weird too.  The longer you travel, the more strange things you see, like the man who stopped in 70 mph traffic to pick up a turtle from the middle of the road.  And believe it or not, he actually looked shocked when he saw the traffic coming right at him.

But anyway, during my trip I did a lot of channel surfing on the radio.  Most of the discussion was about the VA Hospital situation and the medical care that our veterans have not received, the trading of five Taliban militants for one soldier attached to a lot of questions regarding his loyalty and the actions of a President who picks and chooses the laws he follows.  I listened to multiple opinions on both sides and listened to the politicians dance through their stories, and I started to wonder.... What happened to the value of telling the truth?  I am more than happy to no longer be a politician.  I know that I would have difficulty going any further in the political realm because I do believe in the truth and will not compromise that.

I also wondered what happened to these people that made them no longer value the truth.  Where are their mothers?  When "The Surprise" was in second grade, he began telling some tall tales.  He informed his second grade teacher that he had some great pictures of our vacation in Africa but his sister's camera broke and they hadn't been developed.  I have never been to Africa in my life and neither has anyone else in our family.  Unbeknownst to him, his sister was volunteering in his classroom that day.  The look on her face, when the teacher asked about the trip was priceless.  He was in the gifted program at school, and the high school students were helping to teach the French language to the gifted students.  "Calvin" started to apologize for forgetting "The Surprise's" birthday when he was chastised by his classmates until it dawned on him that his brother's birthday was in January, not May.  Lies have a way of sticking to you.  When he graduated from high school, the second grade teacher still remembered those lies.  There were a few other tales that were told, but once "Doc" and I found out about them, we put an immediate stop to them.  I have been known to spank, ground, or wash mouths with soap when the behavior was not instantaneously corrected.  And I will not apologize for it. 

When I first got elected to the School Board, there was a lot of controversy going on.  A lot of variations of the truth were flying around.  I would relate what I knew to be the truth, and guess what... it was the truth.  A good friend informed me that I made him nervous when I shared information, because it was often a problem that needed to be corrected and usually a serious one.  He asked me to lie to him just once.  Nope!  I am just not smart enough to lie.  I would have to remember all of the stories I told so I could tell them again.  The truth is always the truth and the story doesn't change.  Sounds a like a lot of politicians forgot to follow what I hope their mothers took the time to teach them....the value of honesty and truth.  Don't worry about being a friend to your children, be their parent and teach them right and wrong and then follow through and make sure they live that way.  It might be "cute" when they are little, but not so cute as young adults and