Nature, Speeches, Stories, The Future, Uncategorized

Some Truthiness

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Friday during Sherrilee’s “Destructo Kitty” post, I referenced one of those scroll-through-25-pictures articles, which wasn’t a very grown-up thing to do – who (besides a retired person) has time for that? The list (of truths to accept if you’re a real adult) was clearly compiled by a much younger person, but I did find some of the “truths” that resonated with me.

I also found one or two that made me snort tea. Here’s the link if you want to read the commentary, but the “truths” are listed below.

You’ll know you’re a real adult when you accept these 25 truths:

  1. Life’s tough. Get a helmet.
  2. If you want to play hard, you really do have to work hard.
  3. If you mess up, it’s your responsibility to fix it.
  4. Your driver’s license photo will never, ever be flattering.
  5. Sometimes you have to give people the benefit of the doubt.
  6. You have control over your life.
  7. Making compromises is a good thing. Compromising yourself is NOT.
  8. Success is just about perception.
  9. Some people are just big jerks.
  10. School doesn’t come close to teaching you everything you need to know.
  11. Love isn’t just a feeling, it’s a choice you make.
  12. You can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped.
  13. Money won’t solve your problems.
  14. You are not the center of the universe.
  15. Things are rarely as cool as they seem.
  16. You can’t make everybody happy.
  17. Sometimes you have to put yourself first.
  18. Jealousy is a huge waste of time.
  19. Change is good. Sometimes.
  20. You’re not getting any younger.
  21. Sometimes you just don’t have the answers.
  22. It’s never too late to change.
  23. Even if you have “more important” things to do, you NEED to get a good night’s sleep.
  24. You can’t have it all.
  25. The only time you should look back is to see just how far you’ve come.

Which one (or two, or more) of the above resonates with you?

40 thoughts on “Some Truthiness”

  1. That’s one damned strange list. More than half of the “truths” seem silly or false to me. The ones that seem most intelligent need are only useful when viewed in context. What is true and appropriate for one person might be exactly wrong for another person.

    I find myself challenged to write a list of truths that work for me. If I did so, the first truth would be something like this: Don’t feel sorry for yourself because you have problems. The only people who have no problems are dead.

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  2. Another truth I mostly believe in is: “Few problems solve themselves. Most, in fact, keep getting worse if not addressed.”

    But that made me think of a funny true story about a DNR office in southern Minnesota. An old dam on a river was beginning to break up. Folks living downstream wanted the DNR to fix the dam or take it out. Fixing it would be expensive and would perpetuate a dam that no longer served any good purpose. Taking it out would be even more expensive because the dam had backed up a huge body of silt that was laced with toxic farm chemicals. No technology existed to remove that silt, and in fact trying to do so was pretty sure to dislodge silt that would then wash downstream in violation of state water codes. If you can forgive the pun, this was a classic “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” problem.

    Local residents stood up at meetings to say, “That old dam needs fixing or it’s gonna fail.” And the DNR kept answering, “Dang, you’re right! But the problem is complex. We have to run some research on that thing.” They kept running research reports.

    Then, as they knew it would, a heavy rain caused the dam to break up. The nasty silt washed downstream, but its nasty chemicals were diluted by the high volume of water. Anything the DNR might have done to fix the problem would have violated state laws and inflamed the controversy. Running more research reports actually did solve all their problems by “doing nothing” to address the crisis.

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    1. There is a dam near here on the Rapidan which has all those issues plus it generates power. It will not wash out nor would they dare let it with what is downstream. Discussions go on and on. Near it is a little place called the Dam Store, which is really a restaurant which makes pies better than Betty’s.

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  4. Here is a truth which should be framed in some brief witty way. Maybe hard moments will come which you just have to accept. Or sometimes you just have to sit and watch Steve’s dam burst.
    Yesterday I watched my wife of 53 years take the extended, I think 11 question, dementia test and blow all but one question. She did draw the clock face and set the time but it took her about 5 minutes. A month ago she was keeping a check register, parallel to mine, and doing it fine except for making two double entries. Wednesday she did not even understand what the columns were for. A week ago she was managing her 21 drugs just fine. Friday she could not figure out which pills were which because she had thrown four of the bottles away and thus could not identify the pills in her hand. I am sure you all know what rapid onset of dementia means.

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    2. Unless it is a transient issue. That she can draw the clock is very positive. The trouble with this is that you can never know for certain what is going on with dementia until you see a pattern with the passage of time.

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  5. You can argue with “Money won’t solve your problems.” In fact, there are many, many problems that money can solve quite effectively. Flat tires, leaky roofs, malnutrition. It would be more accurate to say “Money won’t solve all your problems.” That is certainly true.

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  6. i never cease to be amazed at the people who think they have contributions to make that are nothing more than noise. this list seems to fall into that category.
    sometimes change is good
    some people are jerks

    wisdom from the mountain top

    is this from trumps son. the 12 year old?

    lots of lifes lessons can be put in a digestable form that is summed up in a phrase.

    a little song a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants
    and so it goes

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    1. I always want to give people the benefit of doubt until they show me I shouldn’t. Similarly, I want to be positive and trusting and respectful until someone makes it clear they don’t deserve trust. It isn’t smart or useful to be gullible and naive, and yet I prefer to start with positive expectations until things go badly.

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  9. The one that resonated for me was:
    – You can’t make everybody happy.

    Several were OK, but with a caveat:
    – I’ve heard someone say “You can have it all – just not all at once.”
    – I think you can have control over parts of your life, but then a health crisis can make everything go kablooey.

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  10. I struggled this with this one all day yesterday. Partly because you all know I love lists and almost everything on the list resonates a little bit. That’s because lists of have to resonate a little bit or they wouldn’t keep going viral. But of course the one that made me laugh out loud was the one that’s most true in my and that’s the one about the stupid picture on your driver’s license.

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  11. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    The “truthiness” word coined by Stephen Colbert descriptively nails down political and corporate attitudes towards facts, truth, and veracity these days.

    This list is interesting. There is some truth in each statement, but some I just cannot fully accept. Take “Love is a choice.” Sort of. How we behave towards others is a choice, but I have not ever found that my attraction to people, whether it might be friendship or romantic love, is not a choice. That secret ingredient which is yet to be defined by research, is a factor. And some people in the world hold no interest to me at all. While others are repugnant. I can not always define what that secret ingredient would be.

    My hair stylist, a liberal, free-thinking and independent woman who I admire immensely, is defining all of her dating choices right now by two factors: A. She won’t date any man who voted for #45. B. She stopped dating white guys because Trump is white. She also has no desire to get married, ever, so she is not taking any of this too seriously, except for #45 who she finds repugnant and who defining so many of her choices. This is her truth right now.

    I am watching all this from the sidelines, always anticipating her stories of how these love choices are working for her.

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