Trust, Honesty, Responsibility

I usually talk about the Braves each day, but today I would like to move away from that and talk about some other things that have been bothering me. Plus, the Braves lost again on Tuesday and they are not playing the kind of baseball that makes me want to watch them play anyway.

Responsibility - I read a news story a few days ago about Ed McMahon having to foreclose on his home. Are we supposed to feel sorry for him? Are we supposed to feel any kind of remorse for someone who tries to live way above their means? This whole "mortgage credit crunch" that we are dealing with today would not happen if people were responsible individuals. If you don't have enough money to make the payments on a straight 30 year mortgage, then don't be stupid and get an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) just so you can make the first few payments and then end up getting foreclosed upon because you can't make the subsequent post-adjustment payments. Don't you have a responsibility to your family? Don't you have a responsibility to yourself? I don't feel sorry for anyone in that situation. Live within your means. If you make $30,000 a year, don't try to live in a two-story, 3,000 square foot house. Get a ranch-style house. If you can't do that, you need to go to college so you can get a better job that pays more money that will make your life a little better. Whatever you do, be honest with yourself and own up to the decisions you have made and learn to never make them again.

Honesty - As Billy Joel said, honesty is such a lonely word. I don't lie very well. I get a sick feeling in my stomach when I do not tell the truth. Does that make me a good person? Not really. To get ahead in this world, you have to be able to lie or at least spin a lie so it sounds like the truth. I can't lie, nor can I put any kind of spin on a lie. I am brutally honest, almost to a fault. Thus, I will never be management material and I am OK with that. The thing that really ticks me off is people who you know are lying, but still lie to you with a smile on their face. It is very hard to trust people when you know they are lying to you and have lied to you before. Why do people lie? Every marriage is centered around multiple lies. Sure, it makes life a whole lot easier to fudge on the truth, but is the need for ego-stroking so great that we would lie to the people we supposedly love? If you don't like something that your partner is doing, tell them. Don't just tell your friends, how is that going to help the situation? If you can't be honest with your spouse, who can you be honest with? (And no, being honest with God doesn't count, because that is just another lie that I will dig deeper into on a later post.) I've also heard that pride is a reason that people lie. How proud of yourself can you be when you know your are lying to people?

Trust - I don't trust anyone, even my own family members. In life, everyone has their own agenda and everybody else is a pawn in their little game. I know people that have cheated on their wives who deny that they have done that. Should I trust someone who can't even be faithful to his wife? I don't think so. I have cut ties with friends that I have known my entire life because of infidelity. Why should I have someone like that in my life? Sure, my friend pool is down to a small number of people, but I would rather have a few friends that I assume are good people than have many friends that have questionable qualities. Quality over quantity.