I go through my life in serach of little factoid (a piece of information that is right and a constant) to live by.  One of them is "Never say Never."  Obviously there is something wrong with that factoid. 

As I walked to work this morning, I saw the front page of today's paper.  It was Gretzky.  The head lines quoting Gretzky saying he would never coach hockey.  Ahh... there is the word "Never" used and proves the user wrong again

"Never' is too strong a word and there is some cosmic joke floating around that waits to prove all those who use "Never" wrong.  "Never" should be used only in the past context to avoid the cosmic joke.

I once was with a friend who is a MBA/LLB (she did the combined program and not individually, which means she is one smart cookie - hard working too!).  One Friday evening, she said to me "Two things I would never do.  Get inveolved with a married man.  Live with someone before I get married."  I smiled and gave her my lecture on using the word "Never."  Remember our conversation tonight I said to her because I  am going to come back on that.  Fast forward 7 to 10 years.  Guess what?   She is so wrong.

When I tried to pass the factoid to my son, I thought carefully what to say.  Never say "Never" is wrong.  So, I went on to say try not to use the word "Never" because it is seldom true.  After a few minutes, he started to laugh.  I asked him what was funny.  Never say "Never."