By JACK GODBEY

I have always heard the saying to never say never because things can change on a dime. I have found that to be very true and accurate advice. 

Never seems to be a word that may seem accurate at the time it is used but can rarely withstand the test of time.

I can recall several times throughout my life when I would say “never” only to have to turn around and eat those words on down the road. 

For example, there have been several times in my life where my favorite foods were being served for dinner and I would over indulge and then top it off with dessert. It didn’t take long for my stomach to make me regret those decisions, and as I sat on the couch in my stretchy pants watching reruns of The Andy Griffith Show and popping antacids like they were M&M’s, I would mutter those famous words — “Never again will I eat that much.”

However, once the colossal job of digesting was complete I would forget all about those words and would find myself the very next week at the Golden Corral Buffet doing everything in my power to eat enough meatloaf and mashed potatoes to get my money’s worth. On the ride home, I would once more say, “Never again.”

I’ve said “never” to a lot of things that proved to be in vain. For example, I’ve said I would never ride in an airplane but I have. I said I would never stop smoking but 15 years ago, I did just that. Back in the 1980s when I was in high school, I said I would never cut off my mullet or wear anything that wasn’t acid washed, yet I have done both of those things.

If you had asked people in this country prior to September 11th 2001 if it was possible for America to be attacked on its own soil, many people, myself included, would have said it’ll never happen and yet it did.

I’m sure that at the time this country was founded when a bunch of farmers in the Colonies went to war with the powerful British Army that most would say that victory would never happen. We celebrate July 4th each year to remember that it did.

If you asked folks back in 1900 if it was possible to invent an automobile that would eventually replace the horse and buggy or an airplane would be invented to sail across the skies or a rocket ship that would take us to the moon and back they would likely have scoffed and said with the utmost of confidence that it would never happen. Yet today all those things are a reality.

We can look at the world around us today and the example of never saying never is more evident than ever. If you were told this time last year that sporting events around the country would be cancelled and that many people would be working from home and the government would be giving money out instead of taking it, you would never believe it.

It seems that the word “never” is taken as a dare by Mother Nature. As soon as it’s uttered she says, “Oh yea. Watch this.”

We should keep in mind that if people tell you that you’ll never be successful or that you’ll never accomplish your dreams then pay it absolutely no mind. If history is any indicator the only sure thing about never is that it’s not accurate for very long.