Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “starts with pro.” Find a word that starts with “pro” and use it any way you like in your post. Enjoy!

Once this prompt was posted and my brain grabbed the word “promise” ‘out of thin air’, there was no waiting for posting this tomorrow. {I’m going to have to try to wait for Saturday before I look next time. LOL}

My first thought concerning promises was how frequently people assume they can impose expo facto promises on others.
You know the type. Someone tells you a piece of gossip that you didn’t ask for then says, “But don’t tell anyone you heard that from me.”.
What the heck? I can’t and won’t promise because I don’t know what that unsolicited information may do. If someone is in danger. or if someone seems to need help, I’m going to do what my conscience tells me is best. Luckily, some people at least give you a warning by saying that last part first. To that, I usually say I don’t want to know, and until I know, I won’t promise anything.

Then I looked up words of wisdom from The Andy Griffith Show on ‘promises’. (IMHO…That show held wisdom and character like no other.)
I posted the cute (wholesome) excerpt below.
I must tell you that I had mixed feelings about what Andy told Opie at first. His advice seemed to be contradictory by praising loyalty to a parent while telling Opie that promises should always be kept.
We don’t want our kids ever to feel they can’t tell their parents anything even if a promise is made. Certainly, adults realize there are many good reasons to break promises. That’s a really good reason that they shouldn’t be made too frequently or without a lot of thought beforehand.

But as I thought about this clip, I ended up agreeing with Andy’s advice. Here’s why:

Kids that young are not capable of prioritizing things and recognizing nuances. Andy was laying an early foundation of character-building behavior. Everything he said was a fundamental lesson that Opie needed to hear. It wouldn’t be long before further talks could add the exceptions to those fundamental “goods” when Opie would be old enough to grasp them. Building character comes from the laying of a solid foundation. Having character, is what helps a person make virtuous nuanced decisions later on.

At least that’s how I see it.
Happy Saturday Friends!