{"id":5047,"date":"2015-10-21T23:12:09","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T03:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=5047"},"modified":"2015-10-21T23:59:48","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T03:59:48","slug":"friend-of-mr-socrates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=5047","title":{"rendered":"Friend of Mr. Socrates."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"snakeheads\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"snakebods\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So.\u00a0 True Story.\u00a0 Or, at least I am told it is so.\u00a0 Oh, oh.<\/p>\n

Alright.\u00a0 It is a story from a long time ago, actually.\u00a0 It happened in\u00a0 ancient Greece.\u00a0 There was this pretty smart dude, named Socrates.\u00a0 Yes, in fact, in his day, he was \u201cda man.\u201d\u00a0 Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem.<\/p>\n

One day, old Socrates was probably sitting on a big marble stone somewhere, and another fellow approached him.\u00a0 The other fellow\u2026 let\u2019s call him Melvin\u2026. met the great philosopher and said, “Do you know what I just heard about your friend?”.<\/p>\n

\u201cYo. Yo. Hold on a\u00a0 little minute there,\u201d Socrates replied.<\/p>\n

“Before telling me anything I’d like you to pass a little test. It’s called the Triple Filter Test.”.<\/p>\n

Melvin was like\u2026. mouth open wide\u2026 and uttered\u2026.\u201dTriple filter?”.<\/p>\n

“That is correct-o-mun-do,\u201d Socrates continued. “Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you’re going to say. That’s why I call it the triple filter test.
\n\u201c The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?”<\/p>\n

Well.\u00a0 Melvin scratched his little bald head with his little stubby fingers.\u00a0 \u201dNope.\u00a0 Actually I just heard about it and…”.<\/p>\n

Socrates nipped him in the bud.\u00a0 \u201dAll right,” said Socrates. “So you don’t know if it’s true or not. Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?”<\/p>\n

Again, Mel sputtered a little\u2026\u2026 \u201dNo, on the contrary…”.<\/p>\n

Once again, Socrates cut him off\u2026 right at the knees.\u00a0 \u201c So\u2026.you want to tell me something bad about him, but you’re not certain it’s true? You may still pass the test though, because there’s one filter left: the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?”<\/p>\n

As you may have guessed, Melvin was about to strike out. \u201dNo, not really.”<\/p>\n

“Well dag nab it,\u201d concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?”<\/p>\n

And then, I am sure Socrates threw up his right palm and started waving it..\u00a0 like\u2026 \u201cTalk to the Hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

There it a big lesson here, from our man So-Crates.\u00a0 Not only should we hold our friends in the highest esteem, we shouldn\u2019t talk about them.\u00a0 Especially gossipy-ness.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And of course, the old triple filter\u2026 who could ask for more.
\nIs it true?\u00a0 Is it good?\u00a0 Is it useful?<\/p>\n

The other thing, no matter who we are\u2026 large or small, white or black, thin or thick\u2026 we all need other people.\u00a0 Friends. Loved ones.\u00a0 Someone to watch over us.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And, we all want to be loved.\u00a0 Plain and simple.<\/p>\n

And this, my friends, is a common denominator among us.\u00a0 Just one more thing that makes us all alike, on a very fundamental level.\u00a0 And with that, we should try to be kind.\u00a0 To the ones we love, and the ones we don\u2019t even know.<\/p>\n

I mean\u2026. Even snakes have friends.\u00a0\u00a0 And\u00a0 so it goes.<\/p>\n

Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest, and be also honest to those who are not honest. Thus honesty is attained.<\/strong><\/em>
\n— Lao Tzu<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So.\u00a0 True Story.\u00a0 Or, at least I am told it is so.\u00a0 Oh, oh. Alright.\u00a0 It is a story from a long time ago, actually.\u00a0 It happened in\u00a0 ancient Greece.\u00a0 There was this pretty smart dude, named Socrates.\u00a0 Yes, in fact, in his day, he was \u201cda man.\u201d\u00a0 Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nowyouseeit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5047"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5053,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5047\/revisions\/5053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}