Some time ago I listened to a religious radio station that had as its primary MC Sandy McCormack who had a wonderful voice for radio. I listened to Sandy on my way home from my night shift at SIUC. I found her kind voice reassuring. Later we attended church with Sandy and her husband Bruce Payne. Sadly Sandy is no longer with us. The station played a wonderful song called Ticklish Reuben. I immediately liked the song due to a previous encounter with the name Reuben. I was in a cadre of my church friends and I was listening to the pastor read from the Old Testament regarding Reuben. ‘Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power…’ Being filled with piss and vinegar as my mom often said… I stopped the reading to offer commentary on Reuben. ‘What a commendation,’ I said with some security of my position. Then the scripture passage continued, ‘Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel…’

So, I learned that sometimes people aren’t what they seem. Later when I listened to the song about Ticklish Reuben from way down in old Vermont and that he had been tickled by almost everything…including a feather and a yellow bumble bee…It stuck in my mind and I often sang it to little Aaron Jonathon and MJ.

We sally forth in our modern age with the desire to not be like the Reuben of the Old Testament. We hope that our memoir with not take an abrupt turn in the middle of the account of our life. Consistency is a mark of character. It has been said to say what you mean and mean what you say. Today we count ourselves lucky if our political leaders do not contradict themselves in the same sentence or certainly while the television camera is still affixed to their Cupie Doll grinning face.

Verbal contracts were popular when you could rely on what your fellow human being told you. I learned quickly at Southern Illinois University as a manager/administrator that my word was my bond. If I told a colleague that I would do something…I must do it. I could not stick my finger in the air to ascertain which way the wind was blowing.

What leaves me dumbstruck today is that there does not seem to be much will to hold others accountable for their lies either in the political or religious arena. Winning the position or the moment or the soundbite seems to be the controlling rationale for consistency in truth-telling.

Most of us have been tickled by a feather and perhaps some of us by a yellow bumble bee…but to base our laughter on lying is a fundamental and dangerous mistake…