Monday Morning Musings - The Truth of the Matter

As the trial of George Zimmerman goes into it's second week, I thought about the fact that the outcome largely depends on who you are going to believe. Zimmerman is charged with murder in the killing of Trayvon Martin, a 17- year old who was walking home after buying snacks at a convenience store. Witnesses have differing accounts of what happened, so it truly is going to be a case of he-said, she-said. When writing fiction you, the author, can put words into a character's mouth and manipulate the story to take it in the direction you want it to go, but in real life, we aren't supposed to do that.

Unfortunately, people manipulate the truth all the time. Do you like the way I came right out and called anyone a liar?

People manipulate the truth to avoid prosecution, to avoid public scorn, to avoid responsibility, and it seems to be an acceptible mode of behavior. Lie as long as you can get away with it.

Okay, sorry, I couldn't avoid the word any longer.

I don't know who is lying in the Zimmerman case, but someone is. There was only one way this scenereo played out. Either Martin attacked Zimmerman first, or he did not. Since Martin is dead and cannot tell  his side of the story, the jury is going to have to rely on what they are led to believe.

Let's hope it's the truth. Either way, let's hope it's the truth.

Well, I didn't mean to get all heavy and philosophical this early in the morning, but this kept running through my mind as I took my walk this morning. Don't even ask me why. I have not been following the trial at all.

Thursday is my birthday and we will be having company for the Fourth of July and through the weekend, so I will be busy all week getting ready. It is always fun when most of our kids and grandkids come out to Grandma's Ranch to celebrate the birthdays, mine and the good ol' USA, and they do have to suffer through me singing "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" over and over again.

Don't forget to leave a comment if you would like to enter the contest to win copies of my short stories. This is part of the Untreed Reads sale - 4 for the Fourth - in which they are offering four short stories for only a dollar through Thursday. Details and lists of books on my post last Wednesday. I decided that I would gift someone with my four short stories on my birthday, so leave contact information in your comment and I will have the drawing early on Thursday before all the fun starts here.

This picture has nothing to do with anything I wrote about. I just thought you might like to see what our Harry was doing recently. I think he wanted the horse to play with him. What would be a good caption?

Truth or a Lie?

For our Wednesday's Guest spot please welcome Slim Randles and some of the guys from the Mule Barn Truck Stop. Grab a cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy....

Delbert McLain came by to have coffee with us the other day. He’s our chamber of commerce, you know. And he ties fishing flies, but doesn’t fish. Delbert’s mission in life seems to be to promote our little valley into becoming so important and prosperous that we won’t want to live here anymore.

But he does try hard.

“Got an idea, guys,” he said. He swept his necktie out of the way so he wouldn’t accidentally butter it. “A contest.”

“Like the knife-sharpening contest you thought up, Del?”

“No, Doc. That didn’t pan out. See, what I’m thinking is, we should play to our strengths here. You know, delve into our plusses, put our minuses on a shelf somewhere, and show the world what we do best!”

“Drink coffee?”

“Of course not, Steve!  I mean, we need to hold a liar’s contest!”

Dead silence. All eyes on Delbert.

He looked around at all the solemn faces.

“You know what I mean …”

More solemnity.

“It could really draw crowds.”

Then Doc, our unofficial spokesman because he has more degrees than a thermometer, spoke up.

“And just who would the liars be?”

“Well … you know, like Steve here. Remember Steve when you said you once rode a bucking horse while sitting backwards on it? Things like that.”

“I did that, Delbert,” Steve said.

“I saw him do that,” Dud said.

“Oh. Well, Dewey once told me he’d put a cow into the branches of a tree. We could start off with something like that.”

“Three of us were there when Dewey did that,” Steve said. “Ran that cow off a little bluff. We had to cut the tree down.”

Delbert sipped his coffee and ate a slice of toast. He’d forgotten to put any jelly on it, too.

“Doc’s squirrel?” Delbert said.

Now Doc’s fictitious squirrel, Chipper, was a lie. But it was the kind of lie that takes on a life of its own until … well …

“You talking about Chipper?” Dud asked.

“If that’s his name,” Delbert said.

“How is ol’ Chip, anyway, Doc?” asked Steve.

“Doing okay. Sleeps a lot these days. Hibernation, you know.”

Delbert left a tip and got up to go pay. They waited until he was gone before laughing.

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Read free samples of Slim’s books at www.slimrandles.com

The Whole Truth

As promised the other day, I will now fess up to which of my outrageous statements were true and which were lies. But first, I want to share some pictures of our glorious snowfall. We don't get much snow here in East Texas, so this is a treat for someone like me who really likes snow.

As long as it is in manageable amounts and I don't have to shovel.

Our dog, who had never seen snow before, didn't mind it at all, except when her tennis ball became a snowball. She wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

The goats were totally disoriented. The darker brown one stood in the middle of the pasture for the longest time just looking at this strange white stuff. The horse didn't care. Give him some hay and he is a happy horse.

Now on to full disclosure:


1. I was a roller-skating car hop like the ones on "Happy Days." This one is true. I worked at a little drive in and that is where I first met my husband.

2. I've broken almost every bone in my body. Unfortunately, this one is true, also. I won't bore you with all the details, but let's just say that horseback riding can be dangerous. As is pole-vaulting and baseball.

3. I once went backpacking in the Rockies. Not true, although I wish it was.

4. I was a trail rider at a riding stable. Yes. I worked one summer at a stable on Detroit's Belle Isle. Classy stable - although I wasn't so classy - and that's where I met and bought my first horse.

5. I was an executive director for a film project. Yes. I had a partner in a film project based on a screenplay I wrote. We almost had the deal together when the oil market did a semi-crash in the late 80's and we lost our main investors.

6. I was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Is there such a thing as a semi-truth? I'm not sure if this qualifies as an official nomination, but my publisher at a regional magazine submitted a feature story I had written about riding patrol with police officers. It was an in-depth feature, and one of the best pieces I've ever written, and the publisher thought it was worth the award.

Okay, there you have it folks. This was fun and I need to check the blogs of the folks I passed this award on to to see what outrageous things they have to say.