Before I get to the story for which the title was selected, I want to share a recent humorous story, about a very serious subject. The humor only exists ...because of the rare element of innocence, existing for only a time, until we destroy it.

The autumn is a favorite time of year; the days not being too hot, and the nights rather cool. Personally, I don't like air-conditioning. I like to have the windows open. But it does have some drawbacks.

The children's window, also being open, presented a rather uncomfortable situation. As the summer winds down, some people feel they'd like one last hurrah. The trouble is, they repeat it over and over again, never really becoming the "last" occasion. And with alcohol involved, discretion is often not one of its finer points, if there arguably are any at all.

We all have choices to make. The ones we welcome may be on the menu of our favorite restaurant,deciding which site we visit on the computer, or whether we can sleep in an extra hour. Other choices may not be as easy or popular ...such as being accountable to our spouse or children. It doesn't take a lot of discretion to tell yourself which is more important.

I've had to be delicate over things like this before. The subjects usually come up when they are all together, during Homeschooling, and my plan has always been the same: Not to reveal too much, make a quick point, have them accept it without question, then back to the textbooks.

This time I listened intently to what they shared. They began by laughing together, stating that yesterday was the neighbor's birthday, and he wanted a cat for his birthday. (We had just watched a movie where someone had received a dog for their birthday.)

At first, I guess, it didn't register ...until they started mimicking his voice with direct quotes. I wanted to say something, but not too much. I guess I wanted the situation to be remedied without further delving into the particulars.

We'd just had the Language book open. We'd been studying words, word meanings, and derivations of words. I explained that certain words have more than one meaning, and though one meaning may be okay, often the other is not ...and often that meaning is the one that is common to people. I tried to exit the conversation without further explanation by saying, "So it's probably best not to use the word."

Of course, curiosity often is a large part of any youngster, and I was asked if a variation of the word was okay. I tried to finalize the conversation by stating that it's best not to use any variation (or derivation) of the word.

A couple days passed, and they were looking at sea creatures in a science book. I overheard one of them refer to one of the creatures as an "octokitty". As the sincere innocent eyes turn towards me, seeking approval, I'm asked, "Is that okay to say?"

Words do have interesting meaning, for sure.

Some meanings of words, and the origin of phrases, were not welcome revelations to me ...and did not do much to enhance my view of life. Nor did it add to my hope of the heritage we are to pass on to our children. Yet, I am not going to always sugar-coat it. Sometimes the Light is seen brighter, in contrast to the dark. And in the brightness of the sun (Son), we can best see our own shadows.