Don't laugh at me I am a fool.

This lovely dog is one of the first ever dogs I tried to paint after having painted my own dog, Damon. I painted it and like so much of my work I was not entirely happy with it. the owner of this dog was happy and has the original painting hanging in her home. But me being me I just had to try and make it the way I felt I now could.  I added more detail and sorted the eye I was not content with. 

It has not changed the owners' mind she is still happy with the first one and I feel a little bit of a fool. It seemed I have reached a ripe age and learned very little. I still carry around inside me the fool I have always been, never learning when to stop and when to be content. 

Feeling this emotion I took time to consider the idea of being a fool. Did I learn anything that will change my life in the future? Who knows.

I am not sure if I have heard this before from somewhere else or it is just something stuck in my mind from one of the many sermons I have written over the years. This thought came to the fore of my thinking. "You are not a fool just because you have done something foolish you are only a fool if the folly of it escapes you." In other words, it is perfectly acceptable to be a fool if in the process you learn something from it.

There is something else I learned about being a fool a long time ago and yet I keep forgetting this also. "If a person wants to make a fool of themselves they will always find plenty of others willing to help." Be rest assured once they have helped you will be left alone the only one looking the fool.

It is not very often that I get sentimental about things, that is not true I do it all the time, but as I was thinking about fools and foolish I remembered seeing Norman Wisdom singing about that, I looked it up and for those older ones reading this it is worth a little trip down memory lane. Go on, you will enjoy. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbwS9qcpi0k  

Go on sit back and enjoy then come back and finish reading.

Back to my serious thought about being a fool.

It was Fraklin who said, "The learned fool writes his nonsense in better language than the unlearned, but still it is nonsense."  I just hope my writing does not too often sink to this. 

One a much less frivolous thought.  I read this somewhere fairly recently. 

"The opposite of wisdom is folly, meaning the short-term self-indulgence which marks out the person who doesn't think about long-term priorities and goals but lives on a day-to-day basis, asking, What is the most fun thing to do now?"

My first reaction was to agree with this immediately but on reflection, it needs further thought. 

I have said on this blog frequently to not worry about the past of the future but to take the day as it comes and go with the flow. This philosophy of life means much to me after the long study I have been doing into the writings of Lao Tzu. Being unable to read the original document I have been reading nine different translations and after some thoughtful consideration writing my own idea of what Lao Tzu is saying.

He most certainly says that living on a day to day basis and going with the flow is the sensible approach to life. He would agree with the thought above that always seeking the most fun thing to do might not be wise but the act of the fool.

So, yes I may indeed be from time to time a fool but such foolishness I hope brings pleasure to my friends and those around me. 

Have a glorious day.