Oh, the Humanity!

This week I write with shame and humility. I crossed a line—no, THE line—that tempts all men using the Internet. I visited one of those beckoning sites that create an ethical dilemma. On one hand, men have needs. Psychologists say that we are the more visual of the two sexes. On the other hand, those sites appeal to the primal urge in all of us. They exploit those involved and seek to catch us at a vulnerable moment.

Unfortunately, this night I failed to guard my instincts and I caved.

In my defense, it was late. My family slept as I entered my office to write. I innocently used a search engine to explore an unfamiliar topic. As it happens, I lost my focus. I began to wander from one link to another until I reached a page that alerted the internal alarm on my computer.

The content filter (used to keep my sweet children from viewing inappropriate pages) blocked me. I forgot the safeguard even existed. I mentally recalled some—but not all—of the software maker’s keyword list that shielded my innocent family from the evils of cyberspace. Now, the guardian stood tall on my screen requiring a password before allowing me to continue my descent into the pond of sludge.

I sat in silence, each blink of the cursor separated by one second as if it were asking if I wanted to waste precious moments of my life viewing such scum. Quickly, I typed the password before any sense of reason could stop me.

I exhaled deeply and watched the page download a bright orange banner highlighting a word used daily by bottom dwellers of our world: FROGS.

Dare we mention those mischievous frogs? According to my computer, chaos ensues when one associates with the words skin, legs, belly, and tongue.