Your Dog is Going To Tell on You

Last week, 60 Minutes did a piece on Spanish soccer sensation Lamine Yamal. He seems to be a fun and very talented kid with a lot of skill and a lot of potential.

At one point, a very entertaining soccer expert was asked if Lamine really had the potential to be one of the greatest or if there is something that could go wrong. The expert responded,

"Any number of things. You know, injuries, personal disputes, his family life. We'll see it on the pitch, because the green doesn't lie."

I loved that last line: We'll see it on the pitch, because the green doesn't lie.

This reminded me of a statement I heard in church some years ago.

My good friend Donna is an accomplished dog trainer. She spoke about how dog owners will be given exercises to practice with their dog between the weekly appointments. The owners, while having good intentions, often don't complete them but will lie and say that they did. She warns them that they can be dishonest about it but "your dog is going to tell on you."

I've always loved that warning. Dogs won't join in on the scheme.

A couple more examples

I recently saw a film that included a daughter tricking her dad into coming to a therapy session with her. She wanted to work out some struggles of him not being around much while she was young. He was a good man but didn't see it the same way. After some back and forth, she put it so concisely:

Do you know how I know you didn’t wanna spend time with me? Because you didn’t spend time with me.

Powerful.

In high school, I went on a beach vacation with a friend and her family. At the time, I was "young skinny" but not "exercise regularly skinny." I tried to take credit for both anyway.

One morning we went on a beach run and I just kept going and going with the group. A cousin of hers, who later became a good friend, warned me to take it easy but I told him it was no problem. I do this all the time.

He countered, "Maybe, but I'm running next to you and your lungs are telling a different story."

He was right, of course. I could barely walk for the next few days because my calves went on strike after all that sand running.

As a Man (Still) Thinketh

About twenty years ago, I read "As a Man Thinketh" for the first time. I've read it many, many times since then. It has been a very influential book along my life's path.

Reading over the brief examples above, it makes me think of this short line from the book,

Circumstance does not make the man, it reveals him unto himself.

There is the story we tell ourselves. Then there is the truth. The closer those two things align, the more at peace we can be.

Or as I've written once or twice before, time is always on the side of truth.

It is What it Was

Among all the sports cliches that are often used, one I've never liked was "It is what it is."

It's right up there with "I am who I am."

When used toward the present or the future, it sounds to me like an excuse. Put another way, "to change is too hard so I'm not even going to try."

But if that phrase was changed just a little bit, to be pointed to the past, then that's something I can get behind. "It is what it was" is an honest assessment when all the fiction has been stripped away and only the facts remain.

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. - James Allen

When we give an honest review of the scorecard for our life, only then we can be serious about improving ourselves.