Living It Up Means Living It Down

“If you’re living it up,
You’ll be living it down,”
My grandmother used to say.
I often wondered
What kind of a person
She was back in the day.

It seemed that she always
Was so very wise
About all the facts of life
No faulty judgment
No hasty thoughts there;
Never seemed plagued with strife.

Did she not have wild oats
That she ever sowed?
Or, was she forever good?
Didn’t she want to
Just live it up and
Do whatever she could?

Moral standards when she
Was young, were stricter
Than those that we have today.
The consequences
Were much direr then;
More of a debt to pay.

Society’s slacker;
Rules softened with time.
Our standards have become lax.
We’d be in trouble
If we lived back when
We would pay for our acts.

Ethics and principles ruled
Society, while
Examples were made of those
Who failed to follow
Morality’s laws
To pursue what they chose.

Living it down often meant
You'd be dishonored;          
Or embarrassed, at the least.
A social outcast,
If you dared to fall!
You’d rather be deceased!

We’re more tolerant now
Of many social gaffes
And lapses in etiquette
No manners are taught
Within today’s schools
It’s “what you see, you get.”

Oh, how far we have come
From Grandmother’s day
No wonder she used to frown
‘Cause living it up
Back then would sure mean
Effort to live it down.