Our boys wanted roller blades for Christmas one year. Having made several trips to the ER with them already, we talked them out of roller blades and into skateboards. Somehow we reasoned that a skateboard would be a safer choice though I’m still not sure.
Come Christmas morning they were thrilled! They had gotten what they’d asked for. The boards weren’t fancy or expensive. We had gotten them at Walmart or someplace like that, but my boys loved their skateboards decorated in optic colors and “rad” skewed lettering.
“Wow, Duter Limit!” they both said reading the lettering on the boards. “That’s so cool!” Later I heard one of the neighborhood kids marvel, “Duter Limit is a good brand.”
As expected within a few months the coolness of skateboarding wore off. It was passé. The skateboards began occupying space in our garage and eventually got buried under more unused toys or junk.
Years passed. During Drew’s senior year in high school he needed money for the upcoming senior prom. He asked if he could have a yard sale to fund the evening. Of course, we agreed, as long as he did all the work.
The buried skateboards surfaced during the gathering of items. They were scraped, scratched and dirty but still in working order. That’s when Drew noticed something. The skewed lettering on the boards didn’t spell “Duter Limit” but “Outer Limit.” Oh yeah. Funny how an “o” can be mistaken for a “d” when the font is totally rad. But at that point it somehow made sense.
Two things I take from this experience: 1) not everything is as it appears; 2) there’s a difference between truth and honesty.
In life’s pursuits, there are things that appear to be one thing but are in reality something else.
Truth equals what IS; honesty may be what you think or believe IS. And though there is maybe no deception intended, our minds can just as innocently perceive and embrace a falsehood before we know it. Some of these untruths are of no danger, like the skateboard incident. But there are others that can follow us for life.