For every man and woman who has ever lived, there is a charm about the forbidden that makes the unspeakable highly desirable. And yet, we are brought up knowing that to indulge one's every feeling is the quickest way to lose touch with all that is good and wholesome.
Mankind, by the frailty of his very nature, is gluttonous to desire and weak to temptation. If there are two temptations before him, he will invariably chose the one he hasn't tried before, believing that chance may not come around twice.
Where temptation is concerned, there is little difference between the sexes. While Eve was the first to eat the apple, who says that Adam would not have succumbed, had he been the one first tempted. In my experience, when women go wrong, men are never too far behind their reasoning and can usually be found lurking in the background. There is no greater temptation for any good man than to find himself in bed with a bad woman or any worst prospect for a good woman than to find herself wed to a bad man whom she cannot change!
As my mum used to say, 'Billy, what you don't know can't tempt you, but whatever you do, keep away from those Heckmondwike girls. They'll be the death of you.' Like many a foolish young man who disregarded his mother's advice and opted to do the opposite, I had to go and marry a Heckmondwike helicopter (a wife who constantly hovers and never lets you from her sight once she has parked you on her pad), before truly recognising mum's wisdom.
And while there is more evil to be found in the least of sins than the greatest of afflictions, my biggest temptation today lies in eating too much of my beautiful wife Sheila's scrumptious apple pies. Isn't it strange that it takes a kitchen Goddess to bring out the devil in a good man?" William Forde: August 26th, 2016.