Daily Archives: April 5, 2016

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D for Determined

Welcome again to 7 sins and friends, with a different feeling for each letter of the alphabet and that will barely scratch the surface of our rich human diversity….

D for determined.

1. having reached a decision: firmly resolved

2. resolute, staunch

I am determined in the picture. My friend B flew from the east coast for a three day weekend and we were determined to get to the wooden floor in my kitchen. The linoleum was easy, but underneath were squares of particle board, nailed around the edges at two inch intervals. We had two nail pullers, but one was far better than the other. We worked for as long as we could stand each day and by the time he left, we were finished! My back muscles complained for days about that nail pulling motion….

D

My son started violin in fourth grade. A classmate had been playing for longer and was better. He became competitive and determined to catch up with her. “You will have to practice a lot.” I said. He did and they were both concert masters as seniors….

What have you done when you were determined?

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C is for Credulous

C is for credulous. Have you ever felt credulous?

“willing to believe or trust too readily, especially without proper or adequate evidence; gullible.”

My young guest in the picture is not quite sure how to interact with the old lady: she is the old lady who swallowed the fly. The fly, the bird, the cat, the dog and even the horse have just been neatly delivered back out of her. My guest is not sure what she will do next. The world is a magical place.

C

Adults get caught up too, but in a darker version of credulous. Something for nothing. A deal too good to be true. A young relative on the phone, caught in another country, asking for help. Email from people saying that we have money from a distant relative who has passed. Calls over and over to my clinic that say they are from my long distance company and that they want to “help” me lock in service before a change…. I asked for a number to call back and was given the number of a sex line. I called my long distance company and they said, “Yes, they just lie.”

I think that fraud is on the upswing in the United States, but perhaps I am just a credulous person who believes that most people would like to earn their living in honest work and doing good for other people and the world.