Thursday, February 16, 2012

Your Past Will Find You...!

I firmly believe that the deeds and actions that lie in the past can and will eventually come to light.

Good deeds, bad deeds, it doesn't really matter...your past will catch up to you eventually! Maybe it's karma, maybe it's fate, the name doesn't matter. In the end, what matters is the fact that none of us can hide from the past. Even more reason to live life as though each day was your last! If you need a reason, that is!

Feb 16, 1894:
John Wesley Hardin is pardoned

Infamous gunslinger John Wesley Hardin is pardoned after spending 15 years in a Texas prison for murder. Hardin, who was reputed to have shot and killed a man just for snoring, was 41 years old at the time of his release.

Hardin probably killed in excess of 40 people during a six-year stretch beginning in 1868. When he was only 15, Hardin killed an ex-slave in a fight, becoming a wanted fugitive. Two years later, he was arrested for murder in Waco, Texas. Although it was actually one of the few he had not committed, Hardin did not want to run the risk of being convicted and escaped to the town of Abilene.

At that time, Abilene was run by Wild Bill Hickok, who was friendly with Hardin. However, one night Hardin was disturbed by the snoring in an adjacent hotel room and fired two shots through the wall, killing the man. Fearing that not even Wild Bill would stand for such a senseless crime, Hardin moved on again.

On May 26, 1874, Hardin was celebrating his 21st birthday when he got into an altercation with a man who fired the first shot. Hardin fired back and killed the man. A few years later, Hardin was tracked down in Florida and brought to trial. Because it was one of the more defensible shootings on Hardin's record, he was spared the gallows and given a life sentence. After his pardon, he moved to El Paso and became an attorney. But his past caught up with him, and the following year he was shot in the back as revenge for one of his many murders.

See what I mean? The past catching up can be bad for your health, or possibly good for your fortune! There's an old saying..."what goes around, comes around!" The Good Book says it even better! "...for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. The rain is threatening to return, and that is good!

12 comments:

Gorges Smythe said...

All of our bad decisions haunt us, I think. I believe that I'll spend the rest of my life paying for unwise decisions that I made when I was 13 and 16 years old. It's not that God holds those decisions against me, it's that a pattern was set in my life that took me down many wrong paths for years to come. Those wrong paths, in part, led me to where I am today. No doubt my current life would have been better if my past years had been better spent.

Anonymous said...

I'm always impressed when I come across truly introspective people since it seems so rare. I think it is common to have regrets. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. Sorry to be so trivial. Maybe I'm just trying or perhaps needing to justify bad experiences, bad choices, in my own life, but the conclusion I have come to is that I made those bad decisions myself and so I needed to learn the hard way, as they say. But none of us is perfect and I have also learned that those who seem to have made better decisions have less than perfect lives themselves and I find I wouldn't want their lives either. This is hard to say. Does this make any sense?

Anonymous said...

Yep, we're getting some good wet stuff too down here in RGV Texas, my wife's pasture needs it desperately, hay prices down here are reedikuluszz!

Karma is strange, but the sentiment expressed is true - your past chases you down.

chinasyndrome said...

Amen Jim! It is true some folks are just to blind to see it. That is precisely why I don't lie or steal,not that I am a great person,I just don't want it happening to me. Goes round comes round!

China
III

Ben in Texas said...

Yep, what goes around, comes around.

Side note. I once knew a lady who was some descendant of ole John. Her brother was an up and coming golfer and on tour changed his name so as to NOT be associated with the Hardin name.

linda m said...

I also believe in "what goes around, comes around" and in the fact that a poor decision/choice in our past may haunt us for the rest of our life. I made some poor decisions and choices in the past (over 25 years ago) that I will probably pay for for the rest of my life.
Glad you are getting some much needed rain

HermitJim said...

Hey Gorges...
It's been said by someone wiser than I, hindsight is 20/20!

I've said myself that "if I knew then what I know now", I would have done things differently!

Thank you for coming by today!


Hey Anon 4:54...
I'm thinking that by the very act of remembering our bad times in the past we tend to live better in the present!

Like you say, some lessons are best learned the hard way!

Thanks for dropping by this morning!


Hey Anon 5:33...
From what I hear, hay prices are crazy just about everywhere! Hope you get some good hay out of this moisture!

Thanks so much for coming over today!


Hey China...
I think that many of us feel exactly that same way, buddy!

Maybe that, mixed in with some common sense, is what keeps us straight! Who knows...?

Thanks for coming over this morning!


Hey Ben...
That it does, sir! That it does!

I certainly can understand him changing his name. Trying to avoid having the family tree cast a shadow in his direction!

You have a great day and thanks for dropping in today, buddy!


Hey Linda...
I think we've all made some bad decisions, but at least we can learn from them and use it to do better!

Just part of the Human condition, I guess!

Thank you for the visit this morning!

JO said...

Interesting story, thanks.
The weather here isn't any better. With the snow on Tuesday morning and the cancelation of my trip it has been cold here and today they are talking more rain also.
So coffee in the kitchen it is.

HermitJim said...

Hey JoJo...
Sorry that you had to cancel your trip, but I can understand the reasons!

The weather all over has sure been crazy! Hopefully you'll get a chance to get away soon!

Thanks, sweetie, for coming by today!

The Griper said...

being a man of "free will" i'd interpret that Bible verse a little differently but it is good to be able to sit and have coffee again.

btw, your encounter with the Muslim stranger was a big hit yesterday, jim. :)

Dizzy-Dick said...

If we did it all over again, we would probably make the same mistakes.

HermitJim said...

Hey Griper...
I reckon that there are always more than one way to interpret things.

Thanks for coming by today!


Hey Dizzy...
I would like to think that some of the mistakes of my past, I would correct. However, there is no way of knowing, so...

Thanks for coming over, buddy!