Imaginary Temptations

For the last four decades there were few things I knew best about myself than that my honesty was beyond temptation.

Well, last night Marleen and I went out to celebrate her new status as GREATgrandma. As I walked into the bustling restaurant the very first thing I saw was a wallet on the floor. It wasn't a little wallet, it was a BIG, FAT WALLET. It had leaves sticking out of it that looked suspiciously like the green, folding stuff that once upon a time we called MONEY.

Yes, I was suspicious. In fact, I looked around suspiciously. The joint was full of suspicious people. I reached down to feel of the suspicious wallet. It felt suspiciously like a wallet, yes, just like a BIG, FAT wallet. You know the kind I mean. the kind full of hundred dollar bills that once upon a time had enough power to buy one hundred hours of very hot, dusty work. Why I have personally worked harder than ever before or since, all day for one lonely dollar SEVEN lonely heart-breaking times!

The wallet just kind of suspiciously leaped into my hand and I stood up a lot quicker than Iad reached down. It was big, and fat, and it had some white sheaves off to one side it had some credit card stiff things inside it. Why, right then it felt like I was holding half of Aladdin's cave in my hand. I gulped real hard and glanced once more at that green stuff. All I had to do was turn around and walk 2 feet; I would be out that door and hurrying towards the safe haven of our car! The temptation was thick, hot and real. An unimagined number of bills of unknown zeroes after the 1 weighed far heavier than a barrow full of money and jewels weighed when Lim Simpson handed me a tub of jewels and gold coins to count and organize all by my lonesome. HIS money had been safer than in a bank. But, this wallet of UNKNOWN wealth was NOT safe. There was this suspicious urge to hide it fast and count it later. I realized I had to get rid of that wallet fast or I might succumb to a fast decision to stuff it away fast. I hurried to the front desk, but there was no one there who didn't look suspicious. There were waiters that hurried there and hurried away faster.

There were floaters hoping to pay for their meals, but there were no managerially endowed, proprietorial looking manager material figures in sight. I motioned for Marleen to grab a table for us, then I waited and waited and finally just took a chance on a waiter. "I found this wallet on the floor." He wouldn't take it, a good sign of honesty. I closed my eyes and thrust it upon him. It felt so GOOD to have that wallet out of my hands. I opened my eyes and the waiter was studying me as if memorizing every molehill on my face. Hastily I said, "I found it on the floor," and then I hastened to my table and my trusting wife. She would never believe how big that temptation was. I still sweat over the memory of that big, fat wallet in my hands and nobody any the wiser.

I suspect there are big temptions out there big enough to make all of us sweat. There was a time when Donny and Marie faced bankruptcy. In that desperate period each one suddenly faced their own kind of temptation.  

Donny once shared a story about the time his former public relations manager almost executed a fake stunt where Donny would get busted for drugs. 

"This will work," Donny exclaimed. But then the reasonable mind in him whispered, "It's going to destroy you." Thus the stunt never happened. But an offer for Marie to appear in Playboy did.

Playboy called Marie, offering her $5 million to be featured in their magazine. 

"And I could have used [that money]," Marie shared. But just as quickly as I shed my fat wallet Marie thought of her mother. "I wouldn't want to see my mom like that, and I really wanted to be a mom." 

There it was, a big gulp and it's gone! It has GOT to be that way. Unload your temptation fast. Get rid of it. Walk away and don't look back. But remember, when your imagination is engaged, your pile of temptation can grow by leaps and bounds and fit your hand perfectly.

the end