A good rule of thumb is never send out a letter, email, or text when you are angry. Wait twenty-four hours before sending.
I bet you have all heard about this rule of thumb, and if you are like me wished on more than one occasion you had followed it.
Perhaps, this same rule of thumb should apply to purchases. Very few things that TV, the internet, or window shopping tell you that you can’t live without, can’t wait twenty-four hours. Impulse shopping drives the economy, yes, but it has been the “ruin of many a poor man.”
Impulse shopping is much the product of envy. It takes you over and by playing on your insecurities makes you crave things, people, jobs, and symbols of power and prestige. Wait twenty four hours is a good rule of thumb.
There have been a few exceptions in my life to this rule of thumb such as asking Suzy to get married, but for every exception there are a hundred wishes I had followed the twenty-four rule of thumb.
What do you think?
PS: In case you have started humming “The House of the Rising Sun” by the Animals here are the lyrics and click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxQHnS3FMH8 to listen:
Sewed these new bluejeans
My father was a gamblin’ man
Way down in New Orleans
She said, son, you’ve got a long road ahead
Son, some may roll and make you crazy
But don’t forget these words I said
And know what the game is
From country to country
Mind to mind
Generation to generation
And to sniff across your mind
And to hang around
The House of The Rising Sun
Sewed these new blue-jeans
Father was a gamblin’ man, yea yea
Way down, way down, in New Orleans
Is some cash, ooh lord, and a trunk
And the only time he’s satisfied, ya ya
Is when he’s on some form of drug
To where, I do belong
I’m wandering back
To earn my pays, in The House
They call, the Rising Sun
Don’t do the things that I’ve done
Spend your life in sin and misery
In The House, they call, the Rising Sun
House, of The Rising, Sun
Webb – House of the Rising Sun has been around for so long that nobody knows who wrote it – Dylan claimed some credit and his version has the quote you refer to in your comments (albeit a “poor girl”) – Dylan’s is the one I have always known:
House Of the Risin’ Sun
WRITTEN BY: BOB DYLAN (ARR)
There is a house down in New Orleans they call the rising sun
And it’s been the ruin of many a poor girl and me, oh God, I’m one.
My mother was a tailor, she sowed these new blue jeans
My sweetheart was a gambler, Lord, down in New Orleans.
Now the only thing a gambler needs is a suitcase and a trunk
And the only time when he’s satisfied is when he’s on a drunk.
He fills his glasses up to the brim and he’ll pass the cards around
And the only pleasure he gets out of life is rambling from town to town
Oh tell my baby sister not to do what I have done
But shun that house in New Orleans they call the rising sun.
Well with one foot on the platform and the other foot on the train
I’m going back to New Orleans to wear that ball and chain.
I’m going back to New Orleans, my race is almost run
I’m going back to end my life down in the rising sun.
There is a house in New Orleans they call the rising sun
And it’s been the ruin of many a poor girl and me, oh God, I’m one.
Bob, I just know how much I enjoyed the song. It was one of the few I knew all the lyrics, or thought I did. Thanks. W.