I lied (and goose tales)

Unwelcome visitors. Except, sometimes I enjoy it when they visit. Then I remember that too many geese spoil the pond.

Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable.  Be honest and transparent anyway.

~ Mother Teresa

Note:  There is a story within a story here.  It might be less confusing to follow one or the other.  The images and captions or the text outside of the images.  Then go back and pick up the rest.  Or not.  Maybe it’s just confusing to me.

I am here to ‘fess up.  Yesterday evening, I lied.  I didn’t say anything that was an untruth.  My prevarication wasn’t done in writing.  I lied by intentionally pressing the wrong button.

Fortunately, I don’t have to work too hard to chase them away. As soon as I walk down towards the pond, the geese honk loudly and swim to the other side.

Remember those robo-calls I mentioned in yesterday’s post?  Some of them are polls, wanting to know how I’m going to vote or what issues are important to me and other things of that nature.  They always begin with a recording informing me that it’s a poll taking place in Ohio, followed by blah, blah, blah that I don’t pay attention to anymore, and then asking the all important question:  Are you registered to vote?

Settling in on the other side.

Having had enough of the phone calls, I lied.  I pressed 2.  Pressing 2 means I am not registered to vote.  I got a quick “thank you” and a hang-up for my lie.  I suppose I might have also skewed something in the poll if they’re counting how many people are registered to vote.  I don’t think that’s the case.  What they probably want is information about how people are going to vote, and I essentially screened myself out of the process/poll.

They are debating whether or not to stay. “It’s a good pond,” says one goose. “But there’s someone walking around it, with a camera,” says another goose. “Well, somebody needs to make a decision…”

Hallelujah!  Maybe they’ll stop calling now.

The thing is, I lied just hours after deciding to focus on sauca.  Sauca (pronounced sow-cha) is one of the five disciplines called niyamas that yoga practitioners adopt as part of one’s relationship with oneself in day to day life and practices.  Sauca means purity or cleanliness.  This purity or cleanliness refers to both the outer and the inner life.  Cleanliness of body.  Cleanliness of environment.  Purity of mind.  Purity of heart.  Lying is not exactly pure.  Or clean.  Or good for the soul.

(Another note:  There are also the yamas, which involve our relationship to others and to the outer world.  One of the yamas, satya, means truthfulness, honesty, with ourselves and others.  Non-lying, in other words.  All these things tend to overlap, as is often case when it comes to ethics, morals, and good clean living.)

Decision made. I am never, ever ready for this shot. Someday I will be familiar enough with the behavior of the geese to judge when the decision to leave has been made and transmitted.

Upon hanging up the telephone, I felt sorry that I had so soon forgotten my intention.  The right thing to do would have been to let the answering machine pick it up, thereby freeing me from making a decision about whether or not I would cooperate and answer honestly.

I tried cropping it, but it’s still not the shot I would like to get.

I’m only human.  Sometimes not taking action is the best option.

Sculpture of geese in the pond at the Holden Arboretum. (Taken on 4 October 2012)

There is no well-defined boundary between honesty and dishonesty.  The frontiers of one blend with the outside limits of the other, and they who attempt to tread this dangerous ground may be sometimes in one domain and sometimes in the other.

~ O. Henry

A bigger view of the pond where the sculpture of geese lives.

Since there is no way for me to correct the lie, all I can do is let it go and resolve to do better.

Yesterday’s view of the creek. It doesn’t really fit in anywhere in this post as is, but the geese often end up hanging out near the creek after leaving the pond.

I guess that means I won’t be answering the phone again until after the election.

Today’s view of the pond. Only four geese came to visit today. They didn’t stay long and were gone by the time I went out for my walk.

That’s all from the Bogs for today.  Thanks for dropping in on this cloudy, sometimes sunny, sometimes rainy day.  Great flocks of birds have been stopping by and hanging out in the trees or on the lawn from time to time.  The afternoon air has been filled with the sound of them chattering, and that great whoosh! that follows when many of them take flight at the same time.  If you want to go for a walk around the pond, check the radar first.  It looks like a good dousing of rain is on the way.  Take an umbrella or put you rain gear on if you don’t mind the rain.  I’ve found rainy days by the pond are quite beautiful, and watching the raindrops hit the surface of the water can be quite mesmerizing.

Smudged and smirched

When we can begin to take our failures non-seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them.  It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.

~ Katherine Mansfield

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