Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

Yesterday I phoned my friend and then when she picked up I laughed, because I had absolutely no news to impart, and my mind was as blank as my calendar. She laughed as well, then then we proceded to chat for over an hour, until my husband opened my door and said he needed me to help him. He was going to try to replace the light bulb in our stairwell, and he wanted me to help him lug it inside and up the stairs and hold it for him as he shakily climbed the ladder and took out the old bulb and replaced it. Now, I'd told him not to do this risky thing, and instead ask our son-in-law to do it. He would have been happy to help. But no, he was a manly man, and he could do it himself except with my help. What's wrong with this logic? Let me count the ways. If he'd fallen on me he'd have killed me. Ditto with the glass fixture. He's at least sixty pounds heavier and my back was facing ten stairs, so I would have fallen all the way down. I told him how stupid it was. I couldn't have held his weight or the latter steady if he'd slipped. Which makes me stupider. Of course, changing the bulb did no good at all. We need an electrician to come out. The fixture, like the house (circa 1909) is a mess. But I helped him march the ladder back to behind the studio, imagining bopping him on the head the whole way. Dear reader, I restrained myself admirably.