Alright, let’s talk about this “sinner prediction” thing. Don’t know what them fancy words mean, but I reckon it’s about guessin’ who’s gonna do somethin’ wrong, somethin’ bad, somethin’ a sinner would do. Like old Man Fitzwilliam stealin’ Mrs. Henderson’s prize-winning pumpkin last year, the old coot. Everyone knew it was him, just had that look in his eye, you know? Sinners always give themselves away, one way or another.
So, can you predict a sinner? Well, maybe, maybe not. I ain’t no fortune teller, never had no crystal ball nor nothin’. But I’ve seen enough in my life to know a thing or two about people. Some folks, they just got that darkness in ’em, you can feel it. It’s like a bad smell that hangs around.
- They lie. Liars gonna lie, that’s just what they do. Can’t trust a word outta their mouths.
- They cheat. Seen plenty of that down at the market, short-changing folks and such. Cheating shows a lack of character.
- They hurt others. Whether it’s with words or fists, hurting folks is a sure sign of a bad egg.
Now, some folks say, “Oh, it’s not their fault, they had a bad childhood,” or “They’re just misunderstood.” Hogwash! Everyone’s got choices to make. You choose to be good or you choose to be bad. It’s as simple as that.
Take young Billy down the road, always gettin’ into trouble. Throwin’ rocks at the neighbor’s dog, stealin’ candy from the store. His momma keeps sayin’ he’s just got too much energy, but I say he’s got a mean streak. You can see it in his eyes, that same look old Man Fitzwilliam had. That’s the look of a sinner, I tell ya. A sinner in the making, that’s what he is.
But here’s the thing, even if you can predict a sinner, what good does it do? Are you gonna lock ’em up before they do somethin’ wrong? That don’t seem right. You gotta give folks a chance to change, even if they don’t deserve it. Though, I tell you what, it’s hard, real hard to give some folks the benefit of the doubt, when they done wrong by you or someone you know. Some people just don’t change.
Now, I heard tell of some fancy folks in the city, they got computers and algorithms and all that jazz, trying to predict crime. They call it “predictive policing.” Sounds mighty high-falutin’ to me. They say they can look at all sorts of things, like where a person lives, what they buy, who they hang out with, and figure out if they’re likely to commit a crime. I don’t know about all that. Seems like a lot of guesswork to me.
Seems to me like you can’t predict the future. If we could, then things sure would be different. Like poor old Mrs. Higgins, she wouldn’t have gone to the market that day if she’d known that old truck was gonna lose its brakes. Life’s just too unpredictable. And to try to predict the bad things, the sins, it’s just a fool’s errand. It ain’t natural. Besides, sometimes the quiet ones, the ones you’d never suspect, they’re the ones that end up shocking you the most. The quiet ones are the ones you gotta watch out for.
But if you really wanna know how to spot a sinner, well, just look around. They’re everywhere. They’re the ones who are always complainin’, always grumbling, always lookin’ for somethin’ for nothin’. They’re the ones who take more than they give. They’re the ones who don’t care about nobody but themselves. They are greedy. Those are the signs, I reckon. The signs of a sinner, clear as day. And you don’t need no fancy computer to see that, just a good pair of eyes and a lick of common sense.
Anyways, all this talk about sinners is makin’ me tired. I’m gonna go make myself a cup of tea and sit on the porch. And if I see any sinners comin’ down the road, well, I’ll just close my eyes and pretend I didn’t see ’em. That’s the best way to deal with sinners, I reckon. Just ignore ’em and hope they go away. But they always come back, don’t they? They always come back.
And just remember what I said: “Sinners gonna sin, ain’t nothin’ you can do about it.” That’s the truth, plain and simple.
The year? Well, they’re saying the “Sinner” is having a good year, something like winning 73 and losing 6, or something like that. Don’t ask me what it means, it’s just what I heard on the radio. Seems like the sinners are always winning these days. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
