Home Life Bits and Pieces Celia Iannelli You play, you pay: Cheaters get caught

Celia Iannelli
You play, you pay: Cheaters get caught

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My gentlemen friend and I had tickets to a comedy show last month. When I said I needed five more minutes to get ready and that turned into twenty-five minutes,(we tell time differently,) he turned on the TV and tuned into the current presidential debate.

When I was primped and ready with coat in hand, I watched the debate for a few minutes—and then I abruptly sat down, my eyes glued to the TV. After a minute or two, we turned to each other. Our eyes locked, then widened with astonishment and we started to laugh—you know, that thigh slapping kind of laugh. It was hard to tear ourselves away; nevertheless we did and attended the show. In retrospect, the debate spectacle was better than the comedy show itself.

If you have been following the 2016 race for the White House, (and if you haven’t, you are in the minority,) you will have realized that it has turned into a television drama, or, depending on your take, a comedy show. But here’s the scariest part: this is for real, folks!

bits_and_pieces_largeThe candidates are blooding one another with gutter rhetoric. The usual he said/she said stuff is over the top. Some candidates brought their wives into the foray and traded unflattering remarks. That insane clash took place a day after a terrorist attack in Brussels that claimed thirty-four lives and injured hundreds. Like I said, it’s over the top. But I digress…

Some of the harsh accusations are true, some have an element of truth, while others are simply farce. Candidates from both parties will gloss over the charges, stage cover-ups or, renege on what they have said or done.  When caught, most folks, politics aside, would do the same. That is, until push comes to shove and the truth must be told and consequences faced. Yes, consequences are for real too.

Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion written in 1686 still rings true: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”  Yup, when someone angers us, and instead of counting to ten we go back at them, anger confronts anger. The consequences of not buttoning it up can range from a brief annoyance to a broken heart.

It’s human nature to ignore the consequences of our actions; we get caught up in the moment. Before we know it, something that was once morally or ethically distasteful becomes more palatable. Why? Perhaps it seems everyone else is doing it, or we justify it to ourselves in some other self-serving way—and sometimes we don’t know why. (The latter being the most frightening!) The first time we engage in less than honorable behavior it probably disturbs us greatly; but then it gets easier, and before we know it, it’s the new norm.

Take cheating on our income tax. Sure it’s easy to fudge numbers, and we may get away with it for a while, but the IRS has a long arm—and getting caught is a given. Instead of eating humble pie and admitting our dishonesty, we become outraged when we have to pay the piper.

Political sex-scandals make big news, right? From the supermarket tabloids to the New York Times and everything in between, newspapers gleefully expose every detail of a sordid affair and  bring governors’, senators’ and even presidents’ political aspirations to a grinding halt. Many folks feel if politicians can lie about having an affair, if they can break their marriage vows, then how they can be trusted on other issues?

Eliot Spitzer’s prostitution scandal rendered him a dead man walking. He was known to be a tough governor, cracking down on corruption with his holier-than-thou, real family-man attitude. Until, that is, it was learned that he had frequent dalliances with an escort agency.

South Carolina’s Mark Stanford went AWOL for a week. He was reported to be hiking on the Appalachian trail – via Argentina. He was with the woman with whom he was having an affair.

And we all know about Bill and Monica. In this case, his political career stayed the course, or even got better. Go figure!

I am not judging these scandals, I couldn’t care less what folks do; they are the ones who have to look daily into the mirror of truth. However, even when our country is faced with a myriad of pressing issues, sure as hell, a good old-fashioned sex scandal will trump (no pun intended) the gravest of issues. Its insanity— voyeur insanity!

We have read about Bernie Madoff’s epic Ponzi scheme. He was once Wall Street’s most trusted investment expert. More than 2,200 folks invested roughly twenty billion dollars with Madoff. He had an impressive client list that included celebrities like Steven Spielberg, Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax and folks like me and you (well not me) who gave Madoff their meager million dollar nest egg. Everyone suffered the consequences: Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, and although the government paid out some of the losses, many folks had to keep on working beyond their planned retirement to lessen their shortfalls.

How about some folks who masquerade as employee of the month, but in fact are malingers? They take short-cuts, don’t do tasks assigned, come in late and start clearing their desks an hour before quitting time. They are usually lazy and do only what is asked, yet expect raises. Back then, as a medical practice administrator, I was able to “sniff them out.” Once I confrontedthe culprits, I always gave them a second chance. However, if there was a repeated performance (or to be more accurate non-performance,) it was bye-bye, see ya!

I have been caught up in some doozy stuff myself, some publishable, some not.  I remember calling in sick when I knew the medical director was at a conference. I went to see “The Bridges of Madison County” (a women’s favorite fantasy) and bumped into the director in the lobby of the theatre. With a twinkle in her eye, she said, “Celia, you have a healthy immune system and recover quickly.” I never pulled that one again.

Sometimes we take a deep slide into a dark vortex and never get caught; however, we still pay the consequences. The gut and heart know our actions were less than honorable and we suffer guilt.

Folks, either way we pay. Political journalist and world peace advocate Norman Cousins has said, ”Wisdom consists of anticipation of consequences.” In other words, we cannot expect to walk through the rain drops forever; one day we will get caught without an umbrella and get drenched. Unethical, immoral and dishonest behavior always has a way of coming back to haunt and trouble us.

Hmm. Ya think I should send this blog to the current presidential hopefuls?

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Iannelli Celia 2014

Celia Iannelli is a native New Yorker enjoying a second career — in ‘retirement’ — as a freelance writer. She lives in Jamesport.

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Celia Marszal-Iannelli
Celia is a native New Yorker enjoying a second career — in 'retirement' — as a freelance writer. She lives in Jamesport.