Led By The Nose

     Recently, I accompanied my new young friend, Jazzy, to an appointment she had scheduled.  It was over an hour drive, one way and we talked, laughed, zig-zagged through traffic and enjoyed the scenery.  Upon arrival, I decided rather than to stay in the car, I would sit in the waiting area of the establishment to pass the time.

     While watching the people come and go, I encountered four people, in the course of about 40 minutes, with nose rings.  Not the kind that are a small sparkling stone on the side of the nostril, but the kind that looks like a ring, hanging out from under the nose above the upper lip.  It was at this time that I had to remind myself of two things; one, I was in a large metropolis, lots more people equals lots more interesting folks and two, I was getting old.  As I tried not to stare at the person with the rainbow colored hair and giant nose ring setting next to me, another person came up to said person and asked where they got that great looking nose ring.  A new ice breaker for starting a conversation, at least to me.

     Jazzy is a whopping 23 years old and me...well, let's just say, no longer fifty something, but we get along very well....I learn from her and she learns from me. When Jazzy was finished and we were back on the road, I disclosed my shock of the nose ring tsunami I had just encountered.  She grinned and announced that she used to have one too.  I told her I always thought that having a nose ring was a sign of submission or being owned and that I was certainly happy she had got past that particular part of her youth.  She laughed and we enjoyed the ride back.

     Later, I did some research into the ring in the nose and found out that, in different cultures, the nose ring was actually a symbol of beauty, prestige and wealth.  Where I had made my mistake was thinking that it referred to being 'led by the nose', which probably got its origins from ringing a cows' nose.

     The meaning of being led by the nose means 'to control someone and make them do exactly what you want them to do'.

     There has been another shooting by police that turned another city into mass chaos.  Riots, looting, setting fires, throwing objects off of over passes onto innocent drivers and beatings, all done because they were given false information.  Who gave the info? The major news networks.  Why?  That is a good question.

     What is going on behind the scenes of where our country gets its news source?  A little research into who and what owns the major networks may be a shock to many people, but the information is out there if we care to look for it.  Sadly, many will not.  We are content to sit in our favorite chair and put our trust in the evening news.

     It seems we are being spoon fed just exactly what the powers that be want us to know.  We need to wake up.  If we don't, we may find ourselves being led by the nose only to find out that where we are being led is nowhere we want to be.