The verb, to beguile comes to us from 13th century Middle English. It means to "lead on or draw by deception." Often, it is a person, or in this case, a roof, which attempts to divert attention in order to trick or deceive.
On the surface, my roof appeared an okay roof. He was a housing artifice that fooled me, leading me astray in delaying--to not only fix him but to replace him all together. He had deluded me into thinking it was safe to delay. It was not. As the photos attest, underneath the slick appearance, was the truth. He was rotten, thin skinned, and tattered--with its shingles crumbling when barely touched.
Many times, appearances are just that, appearances. For some people who beguile, their sole purpose is to just show the surface. This show is not only because they don't have much depth or value but they know it will make it easier to fool or trick people into thinking something that is not true. The underbelly of a heart beating with duplicity and cunning is nothing more than a cavern of rotten motives desiring to obscure the truth or ensnare the innocent or ignorant into believing falsehoods.
My roof was good at beguiling me--it tricked my eye. It 'took me in' making me think that because of its appearance I could hesitate and just believe that the superficial would suffice. He almost charmed me into thinking I could wait another year. It wanted me to remain ignorant in its deceitful plans.
I finally did my due diligence and researched the facts, statistics, and even prices for what was truly going to keep me safe...and concluded I would get a new roof. I got rid of the imposter's daily beguiling ways --thinking it could fool me but he could not because when the uncovering began, its true deceptive nature was revealed.
Pause and ponder, be wary and wise and consider the words of Thomas Paine who aptly reminds us: "A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong give it a superficial appearance of being right.