Lies and the Cherry Tree

As a child, there was a large tree in our backyard that the members of my family and our neighbors called a chokecherry tree. Our parents told us to never eat the little fruits from that tree, or we would choke to death. The fact was that the tree, in reality, was a wild black cherry tree that started to grow long before I was born. To this day, I don’t think that my parents lied to us – more likely, they heard this tale about the chokecherry tree and out of ignorance and caution, they passed on the information to their kids.

Now, most children would simply heed the warnings given by their par...