Catching Idle Butterflies

Beware the parrot

Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip ~ Will Rogers

I read this quote from our new 2007 weekly calandars, and I had to laugh. It also reminded me of when as a rebellious youth, I lied a lot, mostly over really silly things. Keeping track of them was hard enough, but being caught was of course worse.

At my parents house still exists a hole in the wall my mom kicked in with her booted foot in fury at finding out I lied about doing an assignment which I didn't do. As punishment, I spent the week of Spring Break scrubbing 10 years worth of grease and grime from all the floors, kitchen counters and cupboards, and moving the wall of firewood from one side of the house to the other.

Did that teach me not to lie to my mom? Mostly, though it took a while. I never got caught again, but I did find lying tiresome. I finally stopped by telling myself, "If I want to stop lying, quit doing things that I feel I might have to lie about later."

Now would I be willing to give my proverbial parrot to the proverbial town gossip?

. . .

Instead of lying, I'll remain silent .

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My brain did finally crawl home last night at about nine, just enough time for me to decide on my novel idea and hash out 813 words. Not a great start, but at least I started. I don't have much else going on, so I'll be spending my lunch hour as well as my evenings typing as many horrendous words as my fingers can manage.

I only hope I don't end up with bloody stumps for fingers by the end of November. That'll make picking my nose kinda difficult.