Sometimes people can have the funniest definitions of “good” and “bad,” sometimes amusing and sometimes funny as in odd, as in where in the heck did you learn that? Our own definitions of “good” and “bad” are so often filled with biases, tainted by past experiences, and often have little basis in reality.
Somebody wise once told me, make sure you do something bad everyday. One act of defiance a day. Deliberately. You’re going to anyway, you might as well chose wisely and really enjoy it. Needless to say, this does not include wiping out a small country or smiting all your enemies in one fell swoop. I am speaking of the coulds and shoulds and ought to’s, and all the little things we do because we think it is mandatory and required.
I once brought home two cans of coke and two snickers bars and drug hubby into the bathroom so we could enjoy them in private. Yes, quite pathetic, I know, to be hiding from your own children and gobbling down goodies, but if you have ever had kids, you will know that it is often their needs first and you must alter your own behavior to set a good example, and also that they tend to eat all the candy and slobber all over half-drunken cans of soda. It was a bit funny because my husband is the kinder one, he is always thinking of what is fair to the kids. “This is very bad, we cannot eat candy without giving the kids any!” Oh, but we can! Parents need to rebel once in a while, too. “What if they find out?” So what if they do? Do we answer to our own children now?
It is a surprisingly fun and a fond memory, that also really drove home the idea that our kids don’t come first, we do, our marriage, our relationship. Kids will grow up to leave you some day. Hopefully. If you can ever get rid of them…
There was an amazing woman I once looked after who did everything right and did it all cheerfully. Broken pelvis. She would take her medicine right on time, do all her exercises enthusiastically, and I would pour words of encouragement over her, tell her how good she was. One day, she got frustrated with me and shrieked, “I’m so tired of being good! I am always good. Just for once I want to be bad!” It was cute because I so understand. Trying to figure out what bad things you can do with a broken pelvis is not so easy. The closest thing to trouble I could come up with was to go spy on this yacht that had come in and try to figure out what the people on it were up to. We were parked and pleasantly engaged in this pursuit with a pair of binoculars, when this fight broke out right in front of us. The harbor master arrived and eventually the cops. She was quite delighted to be in the midst of so much trouble and of course, I told her the whole thing was entirely her fault.
Everybody’s spirit craves a bit of trouble now and then.
****Repost from 2015
Andrew said:
could do with your advice on the church atm :S
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Paladin Justice said:
Funny story about the coke and candy. It reminds me of how dogs will steal food and then go bury it for later when they can enjoy it with no one around.
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insanitybytes22 said:
LOL, that is so true. Perhaps they don’t want to have to share, either.
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AC said:
I agree with you. There seems to be so much fun and adventure lying just on the other side of boundaries.
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Trish said:
For some reason mischief always finds me…honest, I don’t look for it 😉
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Malcolm Greenhill said:
Let’s get serious about being bad. James C. Scott, Professor of Politics at Yale University, says in his book ‘Two Cheers for Anarchism’:
“You know, you and especially your grandparents could have used more of a spirit of lawbreaking. One day you will be called upon to break a big law in the name of justice and rationality. Everything will depend on it. You have to be ready. How are you going to prepare for that day when it really matters? You have to stay ‘in shape’ so that when the big day comes you will be ready. What you need is ‘anarchist calisthenics.’ Every day or so break some trivial law that makes no sense, even if it’s only jaywalking. Use your own head to judge whether a law is just or reasonable. That way, you’ll keep trim; and when the big day comes, you’ll be ready.”
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insanitybytes22 said:
LOL, oh I like that very much! “Anarchist calisthenics” indeed. We have some people around here who do challenge silly laws and keep our officials on their toes. It’s a pursuit I rather admire. One could actually call it your civic duty 😉
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Eric said:
I tend to agree with that, but if you live an area like the Pacific Northwest where the Libtards encourage ‘challenging boundaries’ you get the feeling that normalcy is the only crime.
Of course, the Liberal Establishment here doesn’t tolerate any challenges to THEIR authority or political correctness. Actually what they’ve done is re-draw the boundaries and make their followers believe themselves independent and open-minded.
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Stella Grace said:
I have no need to find the crazy ones as they find me 🙂
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Meredith said:
Oh yes! Guilty of minor indiscretions, the thrill!
You’re a good friend.
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flowerofthewoods said:
“Needless to say, this does not include wiping out a small country or smiting all your enemies in one fell swoop.”
I was really excited until you said that. It crushed my dreams!
LOVED this post!
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amommasview said:
Very well said. Loved every bit of it.
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Wally Fry said:
Fell.swoop….I really thought I was the only currently living person who used that phrase. Every time I use it….people go…..huh? IB, I think you may be my kind of crazy.
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Citizen Tom said:
You must be almost as old as me.
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Wally Fry said:
Probably so Tom. Actually though I just played a softball game here at camp so feeling pretty young right now
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dawnlizjones said:
Oh no, “fell swoop” is alive and well in my vocab!! Have you heard of “kaddywompus”? Or “caddy-corner”?
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Wally Fry said:
Sure have!
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Eric said:
If you’re going to do one act of defiance a day, just DON’T BE THIS GUY:
https://dalrock.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/oh-lord-its-hard-to-be-humble/
Wherein he takes his recent projection and hubris against Driscoll—if you can believe it possible—to an even lower level than yesterday. LOL Dalrock actually complaining that anyone else lacks humility; double LOL.
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insanitybytes22 said:
LOL, oh dear! That really is funny. I often say some of those guys are trapped in a hall of mirrors, but they still cannot see their own reflection.
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Paul said:
Oh yeah, being bad is always an adrenaline rush. When I owned my own tractor-trailer we were paid a percentage so the more we loaded the greater the paycheck. Of course, the gov’t objected as we were only allowed so much weight per axle or so much gross weight by registration. So we would load heavy and sneak around the scales late at night. I have some funny stories about that. This is so common that there are actually published books sold in truck stops that show you how to get aound each public scale. Ha! they always have a disclaimer in the front that says that the purpose of the book is to better place the scales so anyone on backroads knows to report to be weighed.
It was always such a rush when i pulled back onto the highway after successfully circumventing the scale. Typically we loaded 52,000 pounds (legal Canadian weight) when we were only allowed about 42,000 in the US, although I have loaded as much as 72,000 and got by the scales. I once took a company truck and loaded 2 huge reels of submarine cable in Toronto, and then did two drops, one in Phoenix and one in Seattle. I then reloaded in British Columbia and crossed eastward back to Toronto with a full load of waterslides. The truck had no US permits or regstration an no registration for any provinces west of Ontario. Ha! I bought two permits (Montana and Wisconsin allowed one time trip permits to be purchased at the entry scale) for a total of $110 when the registration for all the states and provinces would have been about $10,000.
Being bad is fun – and i miss it.
Love the story about watching the yacht IB -that is fun.
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insanitybytes22 said:
LOL! Great tale, Paul. You’re simply going to have to find some new trouble to cause now. 😉
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RejZoR said:
I also bought some junk food once for myself and for my sister and then I ate it all myself. I still feel bad 😀 But oh well. I hope she’s not reading my blog messages… 😀
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Mike Ridenour said:
We used to wait until the kids went to bed and one of us would make a candy run. We still usually got busted though. My son was a light sleeper.
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Citizen Tom said:
And don’t children know how to make you feel soooooo guilty?
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Mike Ridenour said:
Oh yeah. They sure do.
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~M said:
Oh this gave me a good laugh! Lol…. Thanks IB… 😂
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wakinguponthewrongsideof50 said:
Cheers to being bad!
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dawnlizjones said:
This is AWESOME!!! I was so THERE today waiting in the doctor’s office, just about to peek in the cupboards, just because. The word “rebel” came to mind. But then he walked in. Once, when I worked night shift in the ER, I put a sign “the throne” on a portable commode so you could see it only when you lifted the seat up…..hopefully someone got a giggle. (I’ll never know.)
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newenglandsun said:
If you’re too bad though, we’ll have to call the Cop News Network (CNN) to threaten to expose your identity if you remain bad. #CNNBlackMail
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insanitybytes22 said:
Ha! I should write about that. Perhaps tomorrow.
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Mel Wild said:
“Needless to say, this does not include wiping out a small country or smiting all your enemies in one fell swoop.”
Really? Okay…change of plans… 🙂
Btw, the perfect woman you mentioned reminded of Lady Gertrude Chiltern in Oscar Wilde’s “An Ideal Husband.”
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