Paraphrased from Aesop's Fables:
Once upon a time, there was a shepherd boy tending his flock of sheep. One day, he thought it would be fun to trick the village into thinking there was a wolf attacking his flock of sheep, causing panic. So he ran into the village yelling "Wolf! There's a wolf attacking my sheep! Somebody help!" Men rushed to help while women and children hid in their homes. When it became clear that there was no actual wolf and that the boy was lying, they became angry and irritated because of the chaos that had ensued for no reason. However, the boy found it absolutely hysterical and relished in the extra attention.
A few days later, the boy played his trick again. He cried "wolf!", and the people came to help, only to find that he was once again lying.
After several repetitions of this prank, the people stopped coming to help when the boy tried to cry "wolf!" and the boy gave up on trying to trick them. However, it wasn't long until he was tending his flock when, lo and behold, a real wolf came stalking up. Panicked, the boy ran down to the village yelling "Wolf! There's a wolf attacking my sheep! Somebody help!" But everyone in the village just looked at him and shrugged. "All he knows how to do is lie! Maybe if we just ignore him he will stop," they said to one another. No one believed the boy, and he wept bitterly when he realized that every last one of his sheep had either been killed or had scattered, never to return.
The greek version of the story ends like this (according to
Wikipedia): "The story shows that this is how liars are rewarded: even if they tell the truth, no one believes them."
~~~
The phrase "it's like the boy who cried wolf..." has come out of my mouth at least twice in the last two days, and in light of that topic, I will share with you those contexts and perhaps make a few other made-up scenarios relating to this topic, if I am feeling creative in fifteen minutes or so.
I was sitting with my friend Amber at lunch the other day, and we were discussing how some people really just... try too hard. Try too hard to be funny, try too hard to seem interesting, etc. We talked about how annoying it is to listen to someone who
never. shuts. up. Especially if the only thing they are talking about is them-self. You know what I'm talking about.
I made the comment that one of my desires was to be one of those people that when I talk, people listen. To make every word I say worth listening to. But that's simply not the case, because, while I sometimes ramble in my writing, I am actually a pretty concise writer compared to how I talk. I (usually) (or at least, sometimes) know when to shut up, but sometimes I need to talk out my thoughts in order to comes to a real conclusion in my mind. It is the same with writing, but in writing, I have to think about what I'm going to say
before I say it, which makes me at least a little more concise.
I also want to be funny. I feel like I usually don't seem like I'm trying too hard, but still, making people laugh is fun, and I am sometimes good at it, so that takes away from my focus of keeping my words limited to wise sayings only.
The end result is: ramble-ramble-ramble-ramble-ramble-wisesaying-ramble-ramble-ramble. Thus, by the time you actually say something worth hearing, people have stopped listening because even though you have something good to say
now, you were boring for a long time beforehand. Just like....
the boy who cried wolf.
Last night I was lying in bed, home from college for Thanksgiving break, in my top bunk with my younger (but not
much younger) sister on the bottom bunk, and we ended up pillow-talking and catching up until about two in the morning. At some point I was like, I want to talk to you about <<my recent ex-boyfriend>> but you have probably heard me talk about boys SO much in the last, I don't know, 8 or 9 years, that hearing me talk about
this boy would be like
the boy who cried wolf. And you probably don't even want to hear about it anymore. Her response? "No comment." Poop. But I can't blame her.
On a side note, I have never loved a human being more thoroughly than I love this guy. I mean that with all my heart, no matter how cliché it sounds. I don't even care if it sounds like the boy who cried wolf, all of you can hear me say that, and, believe it or not, I am telling the honest-to-goodness truth.
Perhaps from now on I'll pull a Jesus and be like, "I tell you the truth..." or something to that effect when I am about to say something actually worth-while. That way if you zoned out due to rambling, you'll know to perk up your ears and listen. Yep. Good plan. How about a test run? Okay.
So my sister is exactly two years and five days younger than me and even though she is younger than me she has bested me in driving seeing as how she can drive a little stick-shift car which I cannot do, I can only drive my automatic pick-up truck which I love, her name is Lucie and I love her because she is beautiful even though someone stole her spare tire and now she has a tail hanging down which is the cord that used to hold up the spare tire but oh well I mean life happens and sometimes people just need a little extra money so they steal a spare tire but my mom said the car people said I could just go to a junk yard and pick out a tire that is still good from an old wrecked car that way I don't have to actually buy a spare tire which would be nice because frankly I don't want to spend money because I don't have a job and I really need one because I really need money because I TELL YOU THE TRUTH: I am thinking about going to Thailand this summer.
Well, that was a very roundabout way to get the news out, but please pray for me and my decision/fundraising.
God bless.
