The Stupidest Thing I've Ever Said...

If you know me, there is a constant theme that has permeated throughout my life .... from time to time, I tend to say stupid things (no comments from the peanut gallery... i.e. Brooke, Uncle Todd, Noel, David, Jeremy... you know who you are).

Whenever I think about people saying "stupid things", I'm always reminded of one of my all time FAVORITE stories. I have this friend named Lenny (names have been changed to protect said persons identity), many reading this know who I'm talking about. Lenny, used to work at a pharmacy where he counted pills. One day, Lenny is doing his everyday task of counting pills... a process that requires him to spend the majority of time looking down. This particular day, as he counts pills, he hears the bell ring on the front door, he very briefly glances up and sees that the female customer (who has just walked in) is on crutches. So, in his attempt to be friendly as well as witty, Lenny says the following, "so... did you hurt your leg playing football?". Her response was, "no, I lost my leg in a car wreck....". Yes! It's OK to laugh at that.

Needless to say, that one of the funniest/craziest stories I've ever heard....

I just thought I would share that with everyone so we all could enjoy it. In actuality, this is not the kind of "stupid" speech I'm talking about in this particular post.

I have spent much of the last year doing a ton of "self-evaluation"; particularly in regards to my perspective shifts. I use "shifts", in the plural form because I can go back over the past 12 to 15 years and point out times when my perspective makes a clear and direct change in direction. In the midst of all of this "self-evaluation", I realize that I used to have a word in my vocabulary that should probably, for me, be considered profane .... incredibly stupid at the very least.

That word is, "NEVER".

Here's a few of my favorites:

- I'll never do that..
- I would never say that..
- I'll never use a credit card to buy things I can't afford..
- I'll never try internet dating..
- I'll never change my opinion about that..

I could go on for days with things I've said I would never do, say, experience.

If there is one thing that I've come to realize, it's this, you can pretty much guarantee that at some point if you have used the word "never" in any of the above contexts... you will in fact do it, say it, think it, act on it.

For me, the most prevalent situation would be "past opinions". I can't even count the number of things that I just "knew" I was right about, that I had the "correct" opinion on, only to see that I was COMPLETELY wrong. Or, if I wasn't wrong, I was completely off base with my motives.

One positive aspect of past mistakes is the fact that I can actually see where I went wrong, I can admit that I was indeed wrong. How many people, due to pride, can't muster up the courage to admit mistakes. Can't find one opinion that was wrong, one motive that was nothing more than the selfish pursuit to feed their/my ego.

I suppose that the older I get, my perspective continues to shift ... I continue to grow: as a person, Christian, a man. So I've learned to attempt the elimination of the word "never". The more I use it, the more I am destined to look back and see how narrow minded I've been.

Truthfully, we do not know what tomorrow holds. There is no crystal ball that will tell us when the curve balls will be thrown.

What's the point in using a definite word like "never" in an indefinite world...