Musings from the Ozone

Have you ever accidentally pushed the 'send' button on an e-mail?   If it was just an error of sending out a half finished letter, there wouldn't be much harm done by sending it out early.  However, there are other occasions when you may have the wrong e-mail address in the recipient line and that can be quite embarrassing, should you hit the send button before realizing your mistake.  Recently, I was replying to my daughter's e-mail, or so I thought.  I wrote her a nice letter, pushed the send button and then realized, too late, that I had another e-mail open at the time and was replying on that e-mail!  Fortunately, it was just a routine e-mail subscription to Dr. Julian Whittaker's column.  I still wonder what he must have thought when he read my little letter!  

There are worse things of course: things  that we wish we had never 'sent' out, and in particular, those verbal 'mis-speakings!'  Noticeably, it seems that politicians and especially candidates for president, seem to get tired and let their words become mumble-jumble.  It's as if they forget how nit-picky the media can be, and when they do not choose the right words to explain their position, they can find themselves having to re-explain their positions again and again!  They had not actually lied, but they had misrepresented their positions with glib mis-speaks or slips of the tongue. Poor Mitt Romney had such an occasion lately when he used the phrase; "I'm not worried about the poor"........and although such a phrase was taken totally out of context, the media jumped on it, used the phrase over and over and tried to portray him as a man out of touch with the common man! 

Have you become increasingly or painfully aware that our present administration is handing out false information to the public in many areas?  Most notably, the debacle over health care in our country has become a string of  falsehoods fed to us, one item after another.  Recently, the catholic church has been in an uproar because they claim the new health care law will force their hospitals and clinics to hand out contraceptives and permit abortions, and that is something that their faith absolutely prohibits.  At the same time that they are discovering the truth about the health care law, our government officials are trying to tell them a different story and deny that there will be such a mandate to religious organizations.  They maintain that there will be the separation between the church and state, but of course a religious hospital or clinic is a step beyond the actual church.  Is this mis-speaking, or is it deliberate mis-information?

What perturbs me most,  is that 'mis-speaking' seems to be the new word to be used when a politician is actually lying!  At least, we used to call it lying.  I remember a couple of  years ago, a politician  told the same story to many audiences; he  reiterated many times that he had been 'in the Vietnam conflict' and impressed his listeners with his tale.  Finally, someone found out the truth and dared to call him out publicly on the issue.  The truth was that the politician had never been in the war at all!  How could someone tell such a blatant lie to the public and not be found out?  Moreover, how could he think he could get by with such a lie?   When he was forced to face up to the lie, he said he had mis-spoke!   It seems to me, there is more here than 'mis-speaking!'  Don't you think there is a big  difference between, 'misspeaking' and 'lying?'  There are times when we have told a story that we thought was real, only to find out that it wasn't true.   I remember that at one time we heard that a preacher was losing his memory and was pegged as having AZ, the dreaded disease.  Imagine the embarrassment, when people found out there wasn't shred of truth to that information.   We have to be ever so careful when we pass on rumors, that is, rumors that we mis-take for information! 

I was reading an article and this little story summed up how we can inadvertently say the wrong thing: There is a story of the minister who passed along to a beginning pastor, a trick he used when he noticed the congregation was nodding off.  "I suddenly say to them, "Last night I held another man's wife in my arms."   And, when everyone sits up shocked, I continue, 'It was my own dear mother.'" 

The young preacher liked it and was ready to try it out the following Sunday when most of his congregation was drowsing.  He said in a loud voice, "You know, last night I held another man's wife in my arms."  Stunned, the congregation sat bolt upright and stared.  Unnerved, the young preacher stammered, "Oh dear -- I've forgotten who she was."

We have laughed at preachers, making honest blunders in the pulpit.  One time, a dear friend of ours, was teaching a bible study on the children of Israel.  He said, "they wandered around the desert, their feet in the sand, but when they looked upwards,  they had beautiful sights in the heavenly sky."  Almost shouting, he said, "FEET, our SAINTS are still in the sand!"  That is what I would call true 'mis-speaking!' 

What about the time when my husband performed a wedding, and said for the groom to 'put the ring on the fing-ringer.'  On those occasions, it is healthy to laugh!  We could write a book on the many mis-speaking's of our ministers, but I am really writing to remind us that there is a huge gap between speaking lies, and speaking mistakenly.  In retrospect , sending out an e-mail  to the wrong person, before it has been scrutinized, is a very minor error, when compared to a politician or any professional persons'  lying to a whole city, state or country and then proclaiming one  has mis-spoken!  It is a nearly unforgiveable crime! It is an offense that at the very least, is dangerous.  Many people are affected by wrong information, and when a lie is given; deliberately told as information,  there remains no trust in that person, the government or the administration.  The very use of the word 'mis-spoke,' conjures up an image of using the wrong word, rather than telling a lie.  A lie will not stand on it's own.  As President Lincoln said, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."  Surely the lie will be uncovered, and with all the hideous aftermath that inevitably comes with deception, one wonders why anyone would take such a terrible  risk with their reputation and name.

As a young child, I trusted my parents word implicitly.  Looking back, I am not amazed that I learned what truth and honesty was so early in my childhood.  I didn't learn it by textbook either; my father and mother just lived truth out in front of us children.  If I ever received a whipping, it would surely be because I had lied to my parents.  They demanded that we tell the truth, and my mother had a way with 'intuition' that we knew we had better own up to the truth immediately.  Children will quickly learn things that are demonstrated to them on a daily basis.  We would never keep the 'change' from a dollar bill, when daddy would send us to the store.   You see, closely following truthfulness and honesty, is another principle: "thou shalt not steal."  These principles are best taught by parents who provide honesty and truthfulness on a daily basis.  They are  living examples of honesty for the children.  

Once you are aware of the truth and the great difference between honesty and lying, you can truly understand what are 'mis-speaks' or the accidental pushing of the 'send' button!