Robert Fulghum Tango, Part 1

“Don’t lie” isn’t on the list of things Robert Fulghum learned in kindergarten.*

But these things are:

Play fair.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.

Tonight I am going to meet Mr. Fulghum. He’s a tanguero, but that’s not the only reason he’s on my mind.

All he really needed to know he learned in kindergarten, he says.

Me too.

But I have to learn it again and again. Today I’m taking a refresher course.

Last night I lied to someone in Tango Colorado. He guessed my identity and I didn’t want to acknowledge it.

If he were a jerk, I wouldn’t care. But he seems to be a nice person. And lying to nice people isn’t playing fair…

So today I am saying I’m sorry. I spent the day trying to craft it, threw it all out and wrote fast and sincere.

It’s nearly impossible to apologize for lying. Your apology says “trust me!” but your lie mocks the person who would. All you can do is hope for the grace of the person you wronged.

In an hour I am going to the Tattered Cover to meet Mr. Fulghum. If the reading doesn’t go too late, and if tomorrow’s plane isn’t too early, and if he is as addicted to tango as he appears to be on his blog, we will show up at Tom Stermitz’s milonga.

Meanwhile, I will be reviewing those kindergarten lessons. You can review them here.