The Cultural Infidel

... but I won't explain precisely why, at least not in this entry.

It's my firm belief that only a fool tolerates a liar, a cheat, or any other variety of manipulator. To accept the good with the bad is to set the price for your willing participation in your own injury. It's my peronal policy to never accuse without logically sound and incontrovertible evidence, so sometimes these two principles are in conflict -- but only temporarily, because the truth has a habit of making itself known eventually. So, while I'm suspicious but not yet absolutely convinced by facts, I keep my thoughts to myself and trust that eventually the truth, be it of my misconception or of vindication of my suspicions, will present itself. Once my suspicions are confirmed, I'm quick to terminate the relationship with the manipulator. I've ended employment relationships, long-standing business relationship, friendships, marriages, and even a parent/child relationship in this way, and I regret the loss of none of them.

Perhaps my self respect is too generously inflated. If so, the probability of my eventual redemption is likely quite low, near zero. I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam, et cetera.

I find myself today with incontrovertible evidence that not just one but two of my clients are liars, and a situation in which their lies will certainly cost me money if not great inconvenience, perhaps even hardship. However, I cannot presently afford to terminate the long-standing business relationships, so I am compelled to violate my own principles in order to save my own hide. I can't even call them on it, because they've both been known to stall future projects as retribution for (respectfully) belying their fantasy images of themselves as honest, forthright, respectable people. There is no profit in shattering the illusions of those who owe you money.

Why can't this possibly be my life? Because I'm supposed to be an organic farmer/homesteader when I grow up, and I'm probably supposed to be grown up now that I'm well into my 45th year of life.

If you're raising children, please keep in mind that it's the supreme arrogance and a great disservice to your children to presume to know the course their lives should take and advise them accordingly. Rare is the happy adult who has followed his or her parents' designs, regardless of the material rewards and/or social status thus obtained. As proof, I offer myself -- but you can probably find many, many more who would serve just as well and perhaps more convincingly.