Seeing

[seer_wayne]

A club. Interesting. I have strange premonitions about this. My tea leaves say. . . Never mind my tea, just be careful, I guess. I may join, though. Danger is one of my middle names, of course.

Anyway, my readings are. . . depressing. . . It's going to get worse before it gets any better.

Comments

[sneaky_marietta]

A club? What sort of club?

Do take heed with what your tea leaves say. I learnt that the hard way.

[seer_wayne]

Some Defense thing. . . DA?

I do. It's serious business.

[sneaky_marietta]

...Oh. I see. Kind of. Just make sure not to sign any parchments they have there and you should be fine.

Yes, well, not everyone thinks that.

[seer_wayne]

I don't sign anything before I read it.

None of us do at first.

[sneaky_marietta]

Sometimes reading it isn't enough.

Fair enough.

[mugglecharm]

Excuse me?

I think what she means to say, Wayne, is that as long as you remain honest, everything will be fine. When you're dishonest, it basically shows as plainly as the nose on your face.

[sneaky_marietta]

I think you read that perfectly clearly.

Perhaps if some people had been honest from the beginning on the fact that there was more to their parchments than simply the words written on it, others would have been more forthcoming with their thoughts. Or decided upon different courses of action.

[mugglecharm]

In other words, Wayne, some people feel that if they can get away with being dishonest, then they will, without even a second thought. That's not the way to go through life, Wayne. Just believe in consequences to your actions, be honest without having a gun to your head, and you'll do fine.

Sorry! I decided I needed to clarify myself a bit more.

[sneaky_marietta]

Of course then, too, Wayne, there are always those people who will presume to know how much others thought about things before they put them into action. And while maybe they made wrong decisions, they were the best decisions that could have been made with the information they had at the time. What's worse, really? The person who hadn't planned on being dishonest but ended up so due to circumstances that came about, or the person who planned to be dishonest by not giving out all the information about parchments they wanted people to sign?

[mugglecharm]

And Wayne, don't forget, there are people who'll always be making excuses for their screw-ups, no matter how big and how completely their own their screw-ups are, and who'll spend every waking moment of their days trying to figure out who else to blame for simply being dishonest in the first part. In the end, Wayne, you'll only have yourself to blame should you choose to be dishonest and betray others without finding a different solution first, no matter how bad you think things are. Yourself, not circumstances, not fate, not cards or tea-leaves or a vengeful god, and not the person who revealed you as the fraud you were. Just yourself.

[sneaky_marietta]

But I think you know, Wayne, that people are products of their circumstances, and while one person may accept that they did wrong, it is almost never one person's fault 100% of the time. The other day there was a broom crash over Leeds, you know, I read about it in the Prophet. One person stopped for no reason and the other person didn't look where they were going. When blame was doled out for insurance on injuries and damage to the brooms, it was divided 70/30 I believe as to who was at fault for the crash. Most things are like that - even if one person is 90% responsible for what happened, which they won't deny, there are always other factors. And people really don't really spend every waking moment of their days thinking about things like that anyway (though isn't it funny how others can, again, presume to know their thoughts and how their minds work), they just feel compelled to defend themselves when someone interrupts them from giving people good advice

[mugglecharm]

So fine, Wayne, you wouldn't be 100% completely at fault if something were to happen if you were dishonest. However, the bottom line is that broom crash wouldn't have have occurred at all if the first person hadn't stopped for no reason, just as if you were not dishonest in the first place, what happened next wouldn't have happened.

So no, no one is completely 100% at fault, but there is a lion-share of responsibility, an instigating act, that one should be acknowledged.

And Wayne, when people are giving advice, real advice, it shouldn't be marred or biased advice and thinly veiled innuendo based on a bad past experience.

What I find delightful is when nobody else complains about one person's perhaps clandestine act -which was, by the way, done to protect everyone involved- but the only person who received the brunt of the act for being dishonest in the first place. That's so delightful I could sing. Really.

[sneaky_marietta]

That is very true. Nor would it have occurred had the other person been looking where they were going. But yes, an instigating act should definitely be acknowledged

[mugglecharm]

But Wayne, would you take advice on child-rearing from a mother who completely hated the experience, or from someone who never had a bad experience with her children in her life, or from someone with a more fair and balanced approach?

What's hilarious, really, is that by ferreting out the person responsible, it further protected those who were honest by knowing that their faith was rewarded by the betrayal and total lack of honesty by a single little trollop. I think there are different types of protection. Knowledge, for instance.

While your asking your Quidditch Captain, Wayne, why don't you ask him why he didn't choose dishonesty on that front when he, as well as everyone else, had that option. Why was it only that single little malcontent?

I find it ironic that some people can even use the word hypocritical with a straight bloody face.

[seer_wayne]

Stop addressing me when you aren't talking to me.

And give it a rest.

[mugglecharm]

Oh whatever.