Honesty is the Best Policy

Honesty is the Best Policy ©

By

Michael Casey

First of all a big thank you to the Polish shop around the corner, I lost some money in the shop and they saved it for me till I realised and came back. Its the new sticky slimy notes, plastic notes we are now cursed with in England. I also have too much rubbish in my coin purse. So I have now got rid of the rubbish so I hope I won’t lose any more money in future. So once again a very big thank you to the girls in the Polish shop.

So events have provided me with a source idea to talk about. I could talk about pain, but it bores you all so I won’t tonight. How honest are you? As honest as the day is long? Or are you forgetful, deliberately. Being the son of Kerry parents I suppose I’m very honest. I’m of an age where I feel guilty if I see a Policeman, we do have Police and Lawyers in the family too. And my mum always used to say “with the help of God and 2 Policemen”.

So if you find a wallet would you keep the money, or try and trace the owner, or hand it in to a bank should there be a bank card inside. Or would you head for Amazon and buy as much as you could with the card. Sadly I know that some people would head for Amazon. In the past nobody would even dream of it now people are jealous and can and would be tempted.

If you borrow a quid for the last bus home would you seek out that person at the bus stop next time to repay them? Or would you think they were stupid to help you? When does it does not matter become it does matter? Is 3 quid the threshold at which you must repay the loan, or is it 10 or 20 or 30. Or never because they are a fool and you have taken advantage of them?

When you meet an old friend do you lie to them and say you meant to ring them but you never did. Its 5 years since you were last in contact. Do we all casually lie about this and that? Only the old friend now lives around the corner for 3 years, and has seen you pass by for years. So you weren’t really friends at all. You were perhaps lying to each other.

We lie about our jobs and our promotion prospects, about where we live and how great our boyfriend is. We say our wife loves us to bits, when in fact she ran off with the bingo called 18 months ago. And on it goes. Till there is no truth left at all.

If we were both blind we could lie and say we were black, or Indian, or tall and thin because we could not contradict each other, because we literally could not see the truth. As my dad use to say of Politicians, he couldn’t be honest even if you paid him. So lying becomes the norm and we do all become Politicians.

They say Honesty is its own reward, or God will save the world for the sake of one Just man. In the end you really do need a good memory if you want to lie, so just how good is your memory. I have total recall, but only for stories, otherwise I forget where my keys are, or what I had for breakfast. I do know where the paracetamol and the Movelat pain killers are, I sadly can never forget that these past 5 years. But I have no need of lies.

This means my tolerance for liars, no matter how small is zero. Liars tend to lick their lips as they lie, and can never look you in the eye. Watch out for that, and see if I am right. Remember too in my hotel days we’d meet thousands of people, my guess is 100,000 people I spoke to during my 3 years there.So I used to be able to read a person in 20 seconds. Now I’m not as good, but don’t lie to me, as you could end up in a story.

Now I’m going to bed so I’ll say goodnight. Or am I lying and I’m going out drinking and gambling with my North Korean Army Girl defector? Well as you cannot see me licking my lips, or looking away from your gaze you will never know. Not unless you see a fat silver haired guy in shades snuggling up to a North Korean Army Girl defector here in Birmingham at our own German Market. But I can hear laughter from my Shanghai wife, even though she is is bed in Shanghai as I talk to you. And no I am not lying, honest folks, that’s the truth.