Believe Me?

Which of the following is NOT true:

• I am 55 years old
• I weigh 132 pounds
• I am 5' 2"
• I have never eaten turkey for Thanksgiving

Which did you guess was not true?

The answer is NONE of them are true.  They may be "close" to the truth.  I'm not quite five feet, one inch tall (but I do like to round up).  I'm not 55 (I'd LIKE you to think that I'm younger than that!).  I'm NOT going to tell you what I really weigh. And as for the turkey, while I AM allergic to poultry (and just being in an area where it is being cooked can make it difficult to breath), I wasn't always and turkey WAS part of my family's Thanksgiving until I was in my teens and had a reaction that resulted in an emergency room visit that night.

Why lie about any of the above? It doesn't make sense does it?  Any of the above COULD be true.  They seem reasonable.  It's not like I presented the following options:

• I made over $640,00o last year
• I graduated at the top of my class at Radcliffe
• My husband and I were married at sunset on the beach in Hawaii
• My ancestors arrived in this country on the Mayflower

Those seem to be pretty outrageous or at least out of my character.  If you've read my blog posts before you might already know that we struggle a bit financially, that I while I went to a women's college, it wasn't Radcliffe (it was Cedar Crest) and while it was sunset when my husband I married, it was at the Jersey Shore and on a deck overlooking Barnegat Bay.  As for the last one, it MAY be true.  I've seen some documents that claims this, but I have dug deeper and come up with conclusive evidence.

That's what it comes down to:  evidence.  Proof.  Solid facts.  

I'm a pretty honest person.  (You have my word on that!)  When I write something or post something on social media, I don't want to spread false information.  While I do screw up sometimes (and we ALL do), I try to make sure that what I say is true and also positive.  (Because we have enough negativity in our world.)  In this day and age (God, do I sound old when I say that!), we can't take things at face value.  We need to do some digging and fact checking before we accept something as truth.  One source is not enough.  (I saw it on Facebook is DEFINITELY not enough!)  You need to check out multiple venues.

Did you hear about the earthquake in Florida?  (This is a hypothetical folks.)  What earthquake?  Bfth wrote about an earthquake in Florida.  Is there information about this on any of the major national news sites?  (CNN?)   No?  Is there information on this one a local Florida news site?  No?  Well, then maybe it isn't true.  Maybe someone (and that someone just might be you), should ask Bfth where she got her information.  And if her answer is:  I saw it on Joe's FB feed; that's NOT good enough!  (And where did Joe get this information from any way?)

We live in a world where information is constantly being thrown at us.  News doesn't just come to us at 6 o'clock at night on one of three major networks.  There are countless television channels aimed towards all different markets and biases.  There are even more websites.  ANYONE can spread ANYTHING.  It's easy.

Being smart; or making smart decisions is not.  With hordes of information coming at us from every possible direction, we can no longer just accept something at face value.  (We probably never should have any way.)  We need to think.  We need to check.  And THEN we can make our decisions.  THEN we can post the story.

THINK!  Find multiple reputable sources and then come to a conclusion.  On this, you can believe me.