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Tuesday 24 May 2016

Thing To Do Or Be Today: repent.

I wish I hadn't...

What? Adopted that tiger? Eaten those oysters? Replied honestly to the question how do I look?

If it's the how do I look? one then you'll get double value from repenting. Not only will repenting act as a useful reminder not to do it again, but it might prove to be a first step towards forgiveness and reconciliation.

Well, if you're lucky it might, anyway.

But what's to be done if you're consistently sweet, virtuous, wise, intelligent and reasonable? Or proudly evil, for that matter?

How can you repent then?

Well, by lying on, or creeping along, the ground. Repent is a botanical term which describes stems or shoots etc that travel along the ground rather than upwards. 

It means that today those among us who have nothing at all to repent (or feel no need to do so) can lie down and either contemplate our own perfections... 

...or plot our next evil deed, instead.


Don Giovanni, failing to acknowledge that repentance does have its advantages.

Thing To Do Or Be Today: repent. The feeling-sorry word comes from the Latin paenitēre, and the along-the-ground meaning comes from the Latin rēpere, to creep.








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