Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

• Exodus 20:16

“‘Do not steal. “‘Do not lie. “‘Do not deceive one another.

• Leviticus 19:11

God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and notfulfill?

• Numbers 23:19

“Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

• Deuteronomy 5:16

If the title rings a bell and the Scriptures look familiar, I recently published a post on Another Old Song – Blizzard of Lies.

Okay, last week, I casually threw in a statement that I might cover “inconsistencies” in my parent’s story of life before me.  I also admitted to an exaggeration told by my mother.

First the exaggeration, my mother said that my grandmother, the woman that was most like me as far as temperament was concerned, had a nervous breakdown leaving my mother to raise her baby sister, even though they were three years apart in age.

I wonder if there was ever a nervous breakdown, and I have known a lot of people who were so arrogant, and maybe sometimes they were that competent, that they thought they could parent better than their parents.  My mother may have invented the excuse to hate her mother, and even though the girls were three years apart, my mother was already so bossy, her kid sister could not make a move of any kind unless approved by her only sister, regardless of whether the mother was competent or not.  And my Mawmaw was highly competent.  She taught me tons of things while my mother was very short on patience.  And Mawmaw made it fun, and my mother hated anything that was fun.  So, did any part of that part of her story match reality?

And I did not mention this last week.  I do not believe relative truth exists.  I believe that we believe the lies we are told or we convince ourselves are true.  We repeat those things as if they were true, but we are really not telling the truth.  My mother did a lot of that kind of lying and I was ill-prepared for life because I honored my parents.  And it has taken me most of my life unlearning what my mother taught me.

But now the inconsistencies.  My Dad told a few.  He had several stories about how his shoulder was injured, but late in life, my mother said he threw out his arm trying to out throw the professional baseball players on the team, trying to show he was just as good.  This was my mother telling this, so can I even believe that?  But with her living in northern Mississippi, how could she watch a baseball game in southwest Louisiana, with a baby in her arms, when the roads were dirt roads and she probably had no car anyway?

But why did my Dad drop out of college after one semester?  He said that the war was brewing.  Sure, but it continued to brew for another two years, almost, after he dropped out of school.  This gave him two years of experience on the railroad, which got him moved from the infantry the day before the boats and gliders left for Normandy (another thing that is too good to be true), but they married in October?  He dropped out of college in December.  He would have played baseball that next semester, but he passed up the chance.  My mother finished her business school in around June.  Why elope back to Memphis, travelling northwest, when he lived in Jackson, TN north northeast of our hometown and in October?  And don’t worry, my sister was born thirteen months later, weeks before Pearl Harbor.  Thus, she was their Pearl Harbor baby.  But then, when did Dad go into the army?  He may have signed up immediately after Pearl Harbor as most young men did, but then my brother was sixteen months younger than my sister.  Maybe he had leave before they shipped off to England to prepare for D-Day.

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.

• Mark Twain

I think Mark Twain has the solution.  Just tell the truth.  As you embellish the story or exaggerate, you can’t remember if the big fish was seven or eight pounds, so the next time you say nine pounds, just to make sure.  And yes, I caught one of those “nine” pound fish.  It was enough fish to feed six adults plus me in my teens, but I think it was just short of eight pounds…

If you change a detail to make the story sound nice, make you not look like a heal, or maybe not look stupid, then that is an extra part of the story that you always have to remember.

Just tell the truth in the first place.  A true Christian is going to know you did not live a sinless life, and as soon as they see me trip over a wrinkle in the carpet that is clearly not there, they are not going to believe that I danced all night without missing a step.

Just tell the truth.  There is less to remember.

Here is Susannah McCorkle singing Blizzard of Lies.  Susannah McCorkle does some improvisational changes in this song by Dave Frishberg, and Dave Frishberg played piano for the recording of the song.  I doubt if that was disrespect.

Maybe, I will leave off the video next time.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.