Being the Fool
February 3, 2007
This is one of those proverbs that, in my youth, I used to employ as a weapon against others. I can’t tell you how many times I spit this one out to make a point in an argument against someone who was irritating me. Over time, I began to see it as cruel to use proverbs as offensive attacks. I regret many of the instances in my youth where I, haphazardly, employed proverbs to bring someone down.
My perspective now, and I’m not that old, is to internalize the wisdom of proverbs and resist the temptation to toss them out as one would a grenade.
One of the proverbs I have internalized has to do with recognizing my own limitations. I often tell children when I make classroom visits that “wisdom is in knowing that you do not know.” Adults tend to look at me quixotically but children seem to really get it. This proverb goes like this:
“By the time the fool has learned the game, all of the players have dispersed.”
Self explanatory right? Well, on the surface, it might be, but beneath its simplicity there lay dimensions upon dimensions of understanding (as is with any other proverb).
The dimensions I consciously choose to acknowledge this proverb are on a more personal level. I see myself as the fool who knows not. This isn’t self-denigrating. It is a reality. At some level we are all foolish when it comes to something. The key is in knowing that you do not know. For me, these are the rules of the game; knowing that you do not know.
“Dooni dooni kononi bè nyaga da.”
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