“Exaggeration”

by Dr. Larry Morris

A newspaper once erroneously printed a front page headline that Mark Twain, the great American author, had died. On seeing the headline, Twain wrote a quick letter to the editor of the newspaper saying, "News of my death has been greatly exaggerated." As human beings, we have a tendency to exaggerate our triumphs and our defeats, our gifts and talents, and our shortcomings and defects. Albert Camus once said that we must tell the truth and we must never tell more than the truth. A Hollywood producer once went by the box office of a theater that was previewing his latest movie. He asked the man at the box office how the movie was doing. The man complained, "This is the worst movie we've ever shown here. The movie has only made $14.00." Very depressed, the producer goes to a restaurant where he runs into a friend. "How's your new movie doing?" the friend asked. "Don't ask," the producer says. "No come on tell me, how's it doing?" Finally the producer gives in and says, "It's only made $28.00."