Somebody somewhere recently wrote that only a fool pretends to be wise and the bigger the fool, the more wisdom he pretends to have. This hit home with me as I sometimes foolishly share ideas that seem to me to be, if not entirely wise, then at least somewhere in the neighbourhood of wise, if only in the dusty, unlit outskirts.
So, I feel that I have been judged by this man’s assessment as not only someone who is unwise but an actual fool. I sit here on my couch dejected. I’ve always suspected I was foolish and have spent a lifetime trying to disguise it, primarly by trying to sound wise.
But then a notion begins to occur to me, in the same way most fools have notions occur to them. By sharing his bit of wisdom about foolish fellas flinging out non-wisdom into the world, is this wise guy actually outing himself as a fool? He has dispensed his wisdom on the topic, and not only that, on a subject that is pretty wide-ranging. So maybe this guy, as it might turn out ironically, is the biggest fool of all, pretending to pronounce on the folly of fools. However, my guess is he believes he is the one exception to his own rule, that he is, in fact, a wise man dispensing nothing but wise guy wisdom. I wonder, and this is probably a foolish idea, whether or not what said brainiac has been brandishing is really only fool’s gold.
Yes, I think I’ve got this sucker. But for a while there, I have to be honest, he almost had me fooled.
©2018 Jim Hagarty
