Stop–Edit–Continue

A hot topic of conversation in today’s society is called cancel culture. It’s prevalent in every country and every society. Lately, every other month, a new atrocity is brought to light. Schools were supposedly set up by religious organizations to help indigenous children transition from a past culture to a new social structure. What these schools were in reality were concentration camps.

Unmarked grave sites at closed juvenile detention facilities have recently been discovered. No one is left alive to be held responsible for these atrocities.

People are either expressing remorse over what happened or denying the offense occurred. Many ask, who could have allowed this to happen, or why are we just now hearing about it? The answer is quite simple: we all use the stop-edit-continue practice in our everyday lives.

When trying to inspire our children to do better in everything they do, most parents will tell them about their childhood triumphs.

“When I was your age, I made the honor roll or dean’s list. All I had to do was work harder than I was before.”

It’s probably not a lie, but they left the rest of the story out. The conversation should be, “When I was your age, I made the honor roll after failing math two semesters in a row. If I hadn’t achieved honors, I would have had to repeat the grade.”

The conversation might be similar when speaking to an aspiring athlete after his or her parent performed a minor edit.

“When I was your age, I made the varsity (pick a sport) team and earned a letter jacket.”

The actual story is, “When I was your age, I made the varsity team but only played a couple of quarters in four years because I wasn’t very good. I got a letter jacket because every senior that played a sport got one.” Nothing is ever exactly as it seems.

The practice of editing life never stops. When putting together a resume, has anyone ever listed the reason for leaving as I got fired for poor performance? The edited version probably said I left in search of a better opportunity. I believe the acceptable word to describe this behavior is embellishing. New York State has a member of Congress that embellished his resume to where he has been indicted for fraud and multiple other charges. Why not call it what it is, lying?

Have you ever heard someone proclaim, “People tell me I’m the life of the party”?

The unedited version is more like: “I can’t hold my liquor worth a damn and become obnoxious when I drink. As the night goes on, fewer and fewer people want to be around me. I don’t even get invited to family gatherings anymore.”

A man in Jackson, Mississippi, was just buried for the second time a few days ago. His mother had reported him missing to the police. She was in constant contact with the police department but was told they had no idea where he was. Eventually, his body was located in a pauper’s grave. Included with his remains were his ID and credit cards. Naturally, the officials are calling the incident a regrettable oversight. They should have called it what it is, a coverup.

There are realistically more examples of people editing events in their lives than I have time to write about. The point is, that we shouldn’t be shocked or disheartened when some of these atrocities come to light, we should expect them. Unfortunately, people’s need to protect themselves and their reputations far outweighs the truth.

We are all guilty of Stop-Edit-Continue over our lifetime. Sometimes it’s as harmless as bending the truth to inspire a child, other times it’s far worse.