May 14-B, 2022

01

Before Dawn at East Fork Overlook 05/30/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Brevard, North Carolina
I have always been a sap 
for sincerity and integrity--
I think because they were so absent
in my early experience,
I sought it out like it was the
Philosopher's Stone.

Turns out, it is.
Sincerity and integrity, I mean.

People use sincerity and integrity,
across the planet,
throughout the universe,
as a front to position them
to harvest all they can bear
of the Big Three Gotta Haves
and Can't Get Enough Ofs
of humankind:

Money, Sex and Drugs.

The world (universe) lives
on, by and for Money, Sex and Drugs.

Money is turned into Sex and Drugs.
Sex and Drugs are turned into Money.
And it all hides behind a charade,
a facade, a front
of sincerity and integrity.

To the point where I am certain
that only .5% of the human population
at any point in the history of the species
have ever actually experienced
sincerity and integrity in their life,
and only .001% of those people
have actually consistently exhibited
sincerity and integrity in their daily walk.

It's all a show.
For Money, Sex and Drugs.

Think of the stereotypical
used car salesman.
Apply that in a much more 
polished and refined form
to everybody else you know,
and you get a sense
of what I'm talking about.

So, I still seek it in everyone 
I meet,
but I don't fall for it
as easily as I once did.

And, as far as my own incarnation of
sincerity and integrity goes,
I'll say I'm really good at faking it,
but the closest I come to truly being
the actual thing
is when I say I am not fully sincere
or completely who I appear to be.

But, I won't take you to the cleaners. 

–0–

Published by jimwdollar

I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing. I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters and five granddaughters within about twenty minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.

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