Abbo's Ramblings

Sooo here’s something I never knew before! Clearly, I need to share it with the world so we can all be equally educated around our inappropriate gestures. Isn’t history fun?   

Before the Battle of Agincourt (pronounced a zhin kuhr) in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future.

This famous English longbow was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as “plucking the yew” (or “pluck yew”).

Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, See, we can still pluck yew!

Since ‘pluck yew’ is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative F’, and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute! It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as “giving the bird.” *

And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing!

Is honesty always the best policy?? After reading an article in The Week entitled, “The Last Word: Nothing But the Truth” by A.J. Jacobs (http://bit.ly/1ncj2s), I’m not so sure. Jacobs spent time with Brad Blanton, the man who founded ‘Radical Honesty’—a movement that emphasizes always telling the truth. Blanton started the movement on the premises that if people were more honest and lied to less they would be happier.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I can see the benefits of honesty.  No more having to hide my true thoughts, no unnecessary effort making up lies to placate people or keep them off my back. But, would this whole total honesty thing work? Would people want to be around me if I was telling them, “I didn’t call you back because you annoy me when we hang out too much.” Would I keep my job if I were constantly confessing to my boss, “Sorry but I was so busy surfing youtube today that my proposal won’t be done until tomorrow.” I’m guessing if I stuck with this total honesty plan I wouldn’t have very many friends and I would be looking for a new job.

After thinking it over for a while and talking to my coach, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a difference between total honesty and living anintegruous, responsible life.  Yes, I need to take responsibility for my actions, and my mistakes. Yes, I should be open and honest with the people in my life—giving them feedback to help them grow. But, no, I don’t need to share every thought, idea, or criticism that comes to my head. In fact, I think its unfair, and irresponsible to dump on someone else because I’m having a bad day or because they’re annoying me—even if I am being honest and saying what’s in my head.

So what do you think? —total honesty? —or, responsible lies?

During the Republican Response - Bob McDonald gives a shout out to FB & Twitter. Here’s the website he mentions that talks about the GOP’s proposed bills around health care & other issues - he suggests people share their opinions: http://www.gop.gov/solutions

Obama during State of the Union tells Congress to lose their either/or attitude and learn to work with each other- “doesn’t need to be election day everyday in Washington.” Someone needs to talk to them about an And/Or attitude so we can start making some positive changes.