CUMP-NEY taught me to lurk.

I am a long time people observer, and this comes from my grandparents adage; "child should be seen and not heard." As children, we were expected to play outside all day and then come in for meals only to return to the outdoors after eating. Now, this changed if we has CUMP-NEY.

Then we had our faces, hands and yes--bare feet were washed along with hair tidied. When CUMP-NEY showed up, we sat quietly on the cross-legged on the floor out of traffic; while adults talked. It was hard to stay quiet and usually if the conversation turned 'private' we were soon ushered outside on the front porch. Mind you, the screen door did not silence the conversation.

CUMP-NEY taught me: racism, out of wedlock babies, marital affairs, stealing, lying, cheating, illnesses, bodily functions, finance, gossiping and just plain old human weaknesses.

Fast forward to my military career and we still had this version of CUMP-NEY. When folks got into trouble, they lost their status (security clearance) and someone had to escort them within secured areas to process paperwork. This is how several times I have been that child again sitting quietly on the floor while another's career hung in the balance over making poor choices. Again here we will leap forward into a public arena:

I have watched people all my life and will continue to do so. The one thing I will do is; not sugar coat what I see and feel when people want to be coddled for not accepting personal responsibility. I will not PUT ON AIRS for CUMP-NEY because to with hold honest opinion is the same as LYING in my opinion. And yes, I realize some folks have the gift of tact. I however, DO NOT. So to ask me to change my personnae to placate another in the name of false empathy is dishonest.

So here I will go back to lurking..................