The other day, I saw a Facebook meme about the Jewish family who adopted Louis Armstrong when he was seven. Maybe you’ve seen it. It started showing up in 2021.
The story was very moving. And very false.
When Armstrong was a boy, his mother worked for the Karnofsky family, and they were very kind and generous to Louis and his mother, and that kindness had a lasting impact on Satchmo. Which, contrary to the meme, is not a Yiddish word meaning chubby cheeks.
The story was again a reminder that not everything we read, online or offline, is true. And something being mostly true still means it is false.
Often, those little feel-good lies don’t really impact our lives. But there are things we read online and offline that are not only patently false but are extremely dangerous. Dangerous in how we view the world and sometimes dangerous in how we view others.
If you grew up attending Sunday School, you probably remember singing, “Be careful little eyes what you see.” Now we should add, “Be careful little eyes what you read.”
A good reminder to remember the words of Abraham Lincoln, who famously said, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.”
Have a great week, and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.