Fine Print

Much in life pivots on the fine print.  The obvious is truly simple; read before you buy, understand before you sign, and ask before it is too late.  It isn’t a coincidence that the word “before” comes in every phrase.  The fine print is a warning message which often comes back to bite the innocent, ignorant, and uninformed.  I wish I could say that it has never happened to me but I am still living with some fine print I was sure I checked!
 
It would be nice if fine print ended with words on paper, it doesn’t.  There is a subtext running through most relationships which tells a story, and even provides a leading indicator or two.  There is an answer to the potential confusion.  Wait, watch, and see how the choices, actions, and decision link with fine print.  Remember, sometimes the obvious is truly obvious.  Facts speak far louder than words.  “If a person climbs over or through the fence of a sheep pen instead of going through the gate, you know he's up to no good—a sheep rustler!”  (John 10.1) 
 
As I watch election results come in I wonder again at the fine print the candidates wanted me to read.  Is it all that I thought I understood?  Does it have to be so complex?  Are the candidates, all of them, as serious as they would like me to believe?  The real fine print of their lives is actually quite clear and simple.  Good hearts are just that.  Simplicity, a clear link to the goal and the steps, past and present, make an extremely strong statement.  It is as if the very thing they would like me to know about them and their message is within their grasp and they don’t even know it!
 
This morning I woke and looked in the mirror, wondering who had won the election.  It seems that nobody knows at the moment.  I wondered if anybody knows what I stand for.  Am I forcing them to read the fine print?  My life can tell the story.