I lied to my son yesterday

I told my little boy a lie, as we were practicing fielding grounders yesterday. He keeps doing the classic little kid thing of trying so hard to look like a major leaguer (in this case, Nomar Garciaparra) that he becomes oblivious to what the ball is actually doing. I told him that if he is worried about "looking good" he will bever actually "be good," and that the only real way to look good was to be good first. I'm hoping by the time they study Bill Clinton in his social studies class that he will understand I was trying to teach him a larger life lesson, and that sometimes literal truth must yield to metaphysical truth.

[I would have linked to Nomar on the Sox's web page, but I'm so angry at the prospect of a strike that I refuse to generate even a trickle of traffic for any of the greedy jerks involved. All you Yankee fans out there, stick a sock in it. Christian charity doesn't extend to you, for you have allied yourselves publicly with the Enemy. I have come back to baseball in a passionate way this year after two decades of apostasy. To have that damaged now is deeply upsetting. Congress should revoke baseball's antitrust exemption if the players and owners don't want to keep the troops entertained. And perhaps we can have a special one-time draft--if the players don't think an average salary of $2 million is sufficient, perhaps $18,000 and food stamps while digging out the caves of Tora Bora will help them see the light.And don't tell me "it will never happen with George Bush as president." A) He has particular incentive as a former owner to distance himself; and, B) Congress can pass veto-proof legislation.]