What would the world be like if, each time you made a mistake, anyone who saw you could easily see not only that you had made a mistake, but in what manner?

In some ways, of course, the world can see your shortcomings.

Anyone who is overweight, as I am, knows this truth. Not all people who are overweight have fallen short. Some of them have genuine medical conditions or they take medication that causes weight gain.

Not me. The only "medication" that's caused me to gain weight is overdosing on Ding Dongs. I've stopped that, thanks to my doctor's stern advice and lost just a bit of the extra poundage, but I would still classify in the "obese" category.

Everywhere I go, this is clear for all to see. No creative clothes combination is going to secret it away from the world. The gut is there and I put it there myself with my bad habits. If you want to comment on my weakness, have at it. It's OK by me.

The world is much more harsh when it comes to another thing some people think of as a mistake: A woman who is pregnant and not married.

Sometimes it is genuinely a "mistake," not intended and not wanted. That happens with people who are married, too, it's just that most people never know it.

But when people know that a woman is single and pregnant there is no end to what they will say about her or even to her.

This has always struck me as particularly strange, especially considering we live in East Texas where family is king and abortion is much abhorred. I am in agreement with both sentiments.

So when I see a woman walking down the street who is clearly pregnant, what I think is: There goes someone who chose life when they could have easily made another choice. That is someone who, difficult or not, has made a decision to rear a child.

This is not, at least in my opinion, any sort of mistake at all. This is the right thing to do.

I know what some of you are thinking. You are saying the mistake was in having sex without any sort of contraception or protection. But that is the mistake that doesn't show, that no one ever knows about and that likely happens so often it would frighten you.

The mistake you complain about \— very often loudly enough for the woman to hear \— is the pregnancy. I would suggest that every time a young woman hears such criticism, it draws her ever closer to stopping it for good \— and by stopping it I mean getting an abortion.

But there's more to it than even that. Our society \— maybe every society always \— simply blames the mother for this "mistake." The unwed fathers get off free from criticism and, unfortunately, sometimes free from even taking care of their own children.

If I hear people complain about unwed mothers a thousand times, I might, maybe, hear a single complaint about the man who got them that way. I may be exaggerating the amount of criticism directed toward men by a factor of 10 or 20.

So what if you could see those other mistakes?

What if every time you lied, your nose really did grow? The answer is simple. We'd all be dragging around noses the length of a football field. Some noses would stretch halfway to Longview down I-20. They would be a real traffic hazard.

What if you grew a wart every time you judged someone maliciously? We would be the ugliest species ever. At least we wouldn't have to worry about that unwed pregnancy problem. No one would want to get close enough to even touch one another.

Imagine if we lost an inch in height every time we chose to do the easy thing instead of the right thing, or every time we did not help another person when we could.

If that were the case, Mother Theresa would have towered above us all. A number of others, some I could think of who live right here in Marshall, would stand almost as tall, but they would have to be careful that they didn't misstep and squish the rest of us like ants underfoot.

If all of those things happened when we made a mistake, we would be a race of wart-covered little people with long noses.

The next time you feel like you made a mistake, check yourself for warts and I suggest you measure your nose. I think it is a bit longer than it was just yesterday.