NoJoMo 6 -Lie? What Lie? in The Common Room

Prompt – The biggest lie I’ve ever told was meant as a joke. Well, maybe not so much a joke as relief from boredom and assininity.

My last child was about to gradualte from high school and I went to a college credit accounting class as a way to prevent empty nest syndrome.

The instructor was a highly payed CPA but unskilled as a teacher. For one thing, he lectured in a monotone to his shoelaces for several weeks. Eventualy, the class was a third its original size and he found his comfort level, but we were a couple of weeks shy of that when I lost emoathy and took matters into my own hands (mouth?)

Mr. P. the teacher, was given to boring retorical questions, addressed to the floor. His question that evening was “What is a ledger?”

I didn’t even stop to think. My four years of classical Latin burst forth (in English, of course) and I replied,

“Ledigius Secundus was of the Seventh Roman Legion. It was his responsibility to see to the supplies for the Seventh and he invented a new way to perform this function superbly.

“In a columned scroll, Ledigius wrote down every piece of equipment the Legion owned. He wrote down the state of each thing, what it had cost to make, to whom it was issued and when it was repaired or expended. At any moment, he could consult his scrolls and know exacly where any thing was, what its condition was and by whom it was being used.

“”He did such a marvelous job that even Caesar came to know his name.
Caesar wanted this efficiency to become universal and demanded that Ledigius teach it to others

“Thus, a record of things, in columnal style, came to be known as a “Ledger.”

It just spit out of me, whole and without hesitation.

The instructor’s mouth was hanging open in amazement.

“Where did you learn that? he asked” picking up a pen to make a note.

Without an answer, because the whole thing was totally made up, I declared, “Oh, I had four years of Latin and I must have translated hundreds of scroll copies from the Seventh Legion.”

I really felt no guilt as the man was sso-o-o boring.

I heard, later, that he told the story as fact to his classes ever after. Not much chance of any one, in those days before internet, learning Latin and translating deadly dull scroll copies just to prove the matter.

I forgot about it for years, until I overheard one of my colleagues at the college where I taught for 21 years, lecturing his students about the origin of the ledger. He clained that he had translated the material.

I’m still chuckling !

Day 7 –

Prompt - .Is there anything you feel guilty about? Is there anything you need to be forgiven for?

I told you. I feel no guilt

Blessed Be

Last updated November 08, 2014