Tag: commentary

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Gift Horses Have No Mouths

The siege of Troy.

“Never look a gift horse in the mouth.” This would be good advice if you were a resident of Troy, or if you were given a horse that looked a little sick around the withers. It could definitely turn out bad for you in either situation. The phrase means, of course, that you should doubt people’s motivations, regardless of whether or not they appear pure. I completely disagree with that.

Yes, I know that there are many people out there who are less than genuine, who smile in your face while they talk about you behind your back. And I know that you shouldn’t trust anyone who tells you to “trust me.” But I can’t help giving people the benefit of the doubt. Does that make me weak or too trusting? Perhaps. But I wouldn’t want to imagine a world where I was constantly on guard.

I know a lot of people who live on the defensive, always getting themselves ready for those hordes of Greeks to pour out of the body of that enormous horse. And do you know how they always look? Frazzled, as if they’ve been fighting an ongoing war for the majority of their lives. Continue reading “Gift Horses Have No Mouths”

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No Fair

no-fair-480Fair (adj): free from bias, dishonesty, or injustice.

Wow. I think this is the first time I’ve ever actually looked up that word, but just looking at the definition I can see why one of the most repeated phrases I hear no matter where I am is, “That’s not fair!” Because, obviously, nothing is fair in life. There is always bias. There will always be dishonest people and dishonest practices. And injustice is the one thing that has woven the fabric of history together into the varied quilt it has become. So, why then do we still feel like everything has to be fair for us in our lives? Why don’t we just accept the fact that “fair” is a misnomer and always will be? Wouldn’t we be better off that way?

The simple answer is no. The more complex answer also ends with no, and for a variety of reasons.

Continue reading “No Fair”

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Lost

“If you’re following me, you’re lost too.” – phrase read off the bumper sticker on an SUV. I almost followed it after reading those words. Everyone gets lost once in a while, and some are lost more often than not. We’ve all heard tales of men who refuse to ask for directions, and of women … Continue reading Lost

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Happy Endings

Or do they?

“All this time you were pretending. So much for my happy ending.” – Avril Lavigne

Do we honestly still believe in happy endings, in this world full of so many that go the opposite way? I think about all the young people who die before their time, in house fires set by smoking parents, in the line of fire during a gang shooting, in a car driven by another young person going way too fast, or even by taking their own lives. And I am also reminded of the high number of relationships that go bad and devastate both people who had a huge stake in them, of the drug users who waste away their lives as addicts, and of the natural disasters that destroy families and their possessions, forcing them to try and recover or to completely give up. And yet, despite all of these examples to the negative, and in spite of statistics that say otherwise, I still believe in happy endings.

And you ask me why. Continue reading “Happy Endings”

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Pillow Talk

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I guess I’m a side sleeper.

You know how it is when you’re shopping for a new pillow, right? First, you have to determine what type of sleeper you are. It’s crazy all the types that are out there, like side sleepers, back sleepers, and stomach sleepers. For some reason I don’t remember all of that when I was young. I remember it was just all about hardness or softness of the pillow, and every single one of our pillows was hard. I guess hard meant cheaper, but now there are all these ergonomically correct pillows, this memory foam that adjusts itself to your normal pattern of head placement. And those types of pillows are $35 dollars and higher! Wow, I don’t think those cheap, hard pillows did that much damage to my head that I would consider paying that kind of money for one single pillow.

Except, I did buy one of those pillows. Let me explain. Continue reading “Pillow Talk”