Bruno Huber

Fools and Wise Men

There are a lot more fools then wise man on this earth. The fools are usually found in a crowd while the wise men sits by himself enjoying the big joke. You want to know what the big joke is ? It’s the difference between what we think we are and what we are. In order to understand this we must first be able to laugh at yourself. Somebody, it might have ben Ken Kesey, pointed out that planet earth is really the insane asylum of the universe ? That’s a pretty shrewd observation. A picture comes to mind of an old man who lived a debauched life, cheated, lied, betrayed and stole and became rich by it all. In his last days the folly of his existence and the hurt he caused becomes apparent to him. He repents, begs forgiveness from a new found god and dies a happy and contended man. Is this fair ? Of course not but then life isn’t about fairness. Considering this planet contains upward of six billion people of which three quarters are too preoccupied with food and shelter, it is a miracle that as a race we have made it this far. Mostly we scramble through life blindly from day to day, from one thought to another, from memories to ideas, from dreams to action, not necessarily in that order. If life turns out OK we say we're lucky or we get arrogant (which is the cousin of ignorance) and if things go wrong then it's never our fault and is just plain bad luck. We pay lip service to the 'live and learn from your mistakes' theory but do we actually practice it ? Can everybody be a success ? Surely not. There have to be failures, otherwise how do we measure success. Better to be a failure who tried his or her best then a success due to birth or dumb luck. Bullshit. I’d rather be young , rich and healthy then old, sick and poor. Who wouldn’t. Fools who stumble along, following the herd over the cliff, never find out what their potential could have been. I’ve been a fool most of my life but luckily the herd I was running with didn’t actually go over the cliff, they just sort of dispersed in time and left me wandering and wondering in the wilderness by myself. What saved me from myself was my wife Klare who pointed the way, to a job, to self esteem and certain goals on the horizon. I never really seen anything that far away, being usually preoccupied with looking down at my feat or just ahead to the next drink and the next dollar. As a loyal fool and self respecting member or the working class I limited myself to a philosophy of simplicity which is just another euphemism for laziness. Instead of taking chances - like an education - I chose the pub and rather then follow my own dream - to become a writer of plays and scripts - I took the easy route and stayed on the job. The fear of failure loomed larger then the vision of success. Of course I fooled myself and wrote anyway, in secret, but certainly not telling my buddies about my hidden fantasy life. My wife is a wise woman. What makes her so ? The fact that she doesn’t question reality, she lives it. She has no illusions of herself, accepts the person she is, the body she inhabits and the people she encounters. She talks to children not down but straight ahead, giving them respect as a person and she doesn't suffer ignorance, laziness and fools. Whatever made her fall in love with me is one of the great unsolved mysteries of life. Klare knows when to laugh and to cry, she doesn't hide her emotions and doesn’t pretend to be happy if she’s pissed off. You always know where you’re at with her. She is also an absolute master of shaming people into giving of themselves to her altruistic causes and getting them to donate money or time. I should know. A good example is Klare’s old aunt Florence. She is a wily observer of politics, knows her BBC, CBC and CNN, is acutely aware of what goes on, knew that Dubya was a disaster for this world when he was still ‘the executer’ from Texas, has far reaching insights due to a lifelong love of history and philosophy but is unable to look after herself. All her life Flo’ was dependent on other people to cook, to clean and to manage. Widowed for the last ten years, she just went on living as if nothing had changed and ended up in a complete mess, physically and environmentally. Klare rescued her and appointed me to be her aunt’s male guardian. Florence now lives downstairs, has her own TV and is part of this household. Lilly is the Irish setter and she has been with us for ten years. She is the wisest of all and has no existential conundrums. Lilly knows how to retrieve sticks and balls, has no qualms about stealing them from other dogs to the constant embarrassment of her so called master. Often I feel that i’m mistakenly put in charge of things other people chose for me. It’s part of the big joke, the fact that I always figure things out after they happened. It’s a good life, inconsequential, average and somewhat dignified. After all it’s dignity that is the most important human requirement, for fools and wise men alike. Now at my mature age I judge myself to be a combination of both. That, I suppose makes me a wise guy. Proud of it. If I could just teach my dog to leave other dog’s sticks alone.

Todos los derechos pertenecen a su autor. Ha sido publicado en e-Stories.org a solicitud de Bruno Huber.
Publicado en e-Stories.org el 01.06.2006.

 
 

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