Am I A Fool

Laugh at yourself first, before anyone else can.


Elsa Maxwell

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Hello Sandy

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What is happening on the day between Good Friday and Easter? I don't mean what happened years ago in Jerusalem. But what is happening right here, right now? According to the Farmers Almanac "everything is." Spring is happening in the North, Autumn in the South. Everything is changing. Even in the darkest places in the world there may be the twitter of a bird or a baby bud poking it's head out or a full grown adult leaf fading into a brilliant color. Everything is changing, but some things never change.



Do you remember what comes after Easter this year? That's right. All Fools Day. Now if there was ever a day in which every human being in the world could celebrate it's April Fool's Day. It's my day. It's your day. It's everyone's day. There has never been a human being who walked the earth who wasn't fooled at one point or another, and most of the time we are fooled because we allow ourselves to be fooled. And that's what makes us fools.



I recently had an encounter with two fools. One was a bully, the most obvious kind of fool. I male person who considered himself strong, intelligent, sexy and profound. That was the fools costume. Underneath was a person who couldn't keep a job and who had to resort to underhanded tactics to pay his rent. I refer to him as a male person because, while he considered himself a man, his manhood was artificial. Bullyhood is not manhood. He fooled himself and he fooled others. He may have fooled many others, except another fool.



The second fool I encountered was in my own mirror. Unlike the first fool, my foolery is on my sleeve for all the world to see and scorn. I have allowed myself to be fooled by many who may not be fools themselves but are clothed in other costumes, robes of dishonesty, theft, deception, ignorance, prejudice and other garments of malicious behavior. Why did I allow myself to be fooled by those people? Because I'm a fool. And I will celebrate along with every other fool, on Monday, All Fools Day.



It is perfectly all right and honest to acknowledge your own foolishness. If you do that you can then have a good laugh at yourself, which is the best defense against the scorners. But you should never neglect to be watchful, to look out for the foolers. Every day the question should be asked "Who is fooling me?" A politician, a pastor, a teacher, a coworker, a relative, a friend. Foolers come from many places and you can't tell them by what they're wearing.

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DB - The Vagabond

Never Give Up

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