A New Promise

I love moonlit nights, especially when the moon shines bright enough to cast shadows. Nights like tonight, when the waning gibbous in the east lights up the towering clouds out of the northwest, and they shine like silver in the deep blue of late evening. It always makes me feel like I'm on some pirate ship, standing in the rigging with the wind about me. The other night, she (the moon) rose the color of aged ivory, peeking out from behind a sheer cirrus veil - close enough to lingerie - and you could almost see her champagne blush. I thought of the value of people as I drove that night. I have recently started working at a Starbucks in Sevierville, and I was dismally shocked out of naivete to find the same sort of gossip there as I had experienced at Kingston Pike.

Gossip is akin to bearing false testimony. Not because some juicy, poisonous bit of news may be untrue, but because of the manner in which we bear it. When I say that my brother is rude and unseemly, I speak as if I describe the whole of his essence, when I do nothing of the sort. I actually reveal more about myself than I do my brother, as I endanger myself by saying, "You fool!" In truth, my brother is much more than my description of him, and indeed, much more than either of us can fathom. His heart is as deep water. But my ballistic words are believed, because we all know that we harbor monsters in our hearts, shackled in thin chains of human will; it's evident in our minds that mankind alone is far less likely to be good than bad. But, you might say, do we no also lie, then, when we speak good of people? No, for when I hear that my brother is a wonderful, hardworking fellow, I am fully prepared with an understanding that he might also have bad breath, because I (in all my perfection) have bad breath. However, if I hear that he is a sluggard, I am little disposed to see him as any more than such, since I bear an intrinsic knowledge of my own evil. Thus, I am plagued by an unclear and unmerciful picture of him, with no room to grow.

So, I made a promise. I am unfortunately not very good at remembering promises, so I decided to make fewer of them to keep from overloading the management. I promised myself that I would not speak ill of people. I hope that this bears the fruit of Love.

I can't wait for the next Harry Potter book. I'm a geek.