promises, promises

Promises, promises....

I have always been a bit of a hard-ass when it comes to promises. If I say I am going to do something, then I like to keep my word. Little or large, no different. And when I don't keep my promise, then I like to take responsibility for that failure.

Of course there is a difference between "like to" and "actually do," but I do what I can and take it pretty seriously. I do not think well of those (me or anyone else) who promise and don't deliver or promise and then weave a tapestry of excuses for how and why the promise went unkept.

Short and sweet, there is an advertising billboard in my make-up that reads, "Keep your word."

But promises are kind of interesting. They always relate to the future and no one can predict the future, no matter how hard the promises might try. Perhaps this observation is best summed up with the wry New-Year's-Resolution suggestion, "Don't make 'em ... don't break 'em!"

And yet promises or intentions are important ... even if they fail and even if the future provides what the present cannot possibly know.

Promises probably are not important enough to warrant being a hard-ass, but perhaps being a hard-ass is not hard-ass enough.

I don't know.

Promises, promises ....