Food-for-Thought: The One Wrong Thing You Do...

Man...

What in the world?

I tell you... I turn on the television in the mornings all weekend and even today, just trying my best to watch the news and learn what the weather will be like, and I have to see the journalists' breathing all hard about a juicy new scandal.

Just when I thought things would calm down after the election...

Just when I hoped everything would return back to normal, I have to see this...

Really?

Sex, lies, and email. An earlier headline simply read "A MESS".

And it is indeed a mess. My ears have been scorched enough, thank you very much.

And it is all quite salacious. I never knew email could be so scandalous. Threats from anonymous accounts, the FBI combing through emails and what-not.

There's just a lot going on.

And I have sat through some of it because, you know, I just want them to move on to more things that affect the quality of my life... like the weather. I need to know if I need my umbrella or not.

I can't say I care too much about what is going on. Some folks got caught. And they got caught bad.

I can't judge. I myself have fooled around with a married man in the past. I can't say that I've sat down and sent anonymous emails. Email wasn't in existence during that odd time of my life. I'm not sure I would've even had the gall to write an anonymous letter. That's like, some dramatic tomfoolery there. I figure once you hit your 30s, we have matured past that point.

There are 3 important things that resonate with me... 3 important mini food-for-thoughts.

1. Things are not always what to seem.  To look at these people, one would think that they have the perfect lives. I mean, everyone is married. Everyone has lovely families. And yet, there is some point of dissatisfaction with "the perfect life" that always seems to take place. (And it has to be a satisfaction thing, right? Afterall, you have what everyone wants out of life!) And things go astray. That is what we have here. Life took a detour down the wrong alley. Just my opinion.

2. You can do whatever it is you want, even if it's really bad... as long as it doesn't affect anyone else's life in a negative way..  My grandfather gave me that important advice many years ago. We were discussing having a crack habit. It was alright to smoke crack... as long as you weren't affecting the lives of others.  And we know that's not the way it's going down. A crackhead tares up his own life, and the lives of others. Easily.

Hmm... this important truth is easily extrapolated to a plethora of other life issues. In the case of this elicit Petraeus scandal, lives are affected. There are kids and spouses involved. You know the kids of this chick who pretty much started all this mess are catching HELL at school. Kids are cruel. And the spouses... I am sure they can see the looks in the eyes of people they work with.

Your spouses have you looking crazy, and everything is on the news. Mom and Dad have been caught up in some straight ratchetness. And EVERYBODY knows the sordid details.

That is what I call affecting someone's life.

3. You will be remembered for one of two things:  The problems you solve OR the problems you caused.

This is where things get interesting. If you have read my blog for anytime, you will know that I'm not only perturbed by the mere actions that have taken place, I am also concerned with the residual effects of the actions that have taken place.

You know, the residue. Residue takes awhile to rub off.

And we can stretch this out to something else I heard years ago, that's related in general...

You can do many great things during your lifetime...

Reach the highest pinnacles of achievement. Solve world problems. Discover the cures to all things.

But you do ONE wrong thing, and it will all come crashing down.

One detail of your secret life can be exposed, and all those achievements will mean nothing at all.

You will be forever remembered by that one wrong thing you did.

I went and read up on some of General Petraeus' achievements,,, and they are MANY. Honestly, I didn't know much about him. It was an interesting read. This man has been successful in every area of his military life.

But let's face it: come 5 or 10 years from now, will we be discussing Petraeus' accomplishments?

Or will be talking about the man who got caught in an affair, and had to resign as the director of the CIA... all because of his mistress trying to push up on some other woman (who wasn't his wife) that she considered a threat.

Yeah, you know which one we'll be discussing.

You surely do.

He'll be remembered for the problems he caused... not for the problems he solved.

And that is sad, because it's reality.

It's everyone's reality.

So when I see these types of things, I am saddened. I don't point my fingers and laugh and whisper about it. This is everyone's reality. My messes have never been in the spotlight because I am one of the common folks. But it does make me... pause. And think of my own life, the darker more private areas of it in particular.

Let's just hope there is not more coming out about all this.

I don't think I could take it. 

I just want to know what the weather is going to be like... day after day.