Blog Dis

We've all heard the expression that there's no one happier than a fool, which in effect means a fool is lacking in the brain power to fully comprehend situations; hence, their reason for being happy. A fool doesn't know what they should be worried about and more to the point, a fool isn't even aware of the fact that they're not even aware. One could argue that a fool is free to live their life worry-free. Wouldn't that be something, to never worry?

I don't believe this to be the case. So long as you wake up each day and interact with any number of individuals, be it colleagues or partners or kids, you will be forced to communicate, to interact and react. Granted, your idea of interaction may differ from someone else's but on the whole, your connection with the world around you will go on day in and day out, and somehow, the world will manage to worm its way into your private world, thereby making it difficult for you to run and hide. Fools and wise people come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some are able to play the game of the fool to a deliberate and practiced finesse (as in weaponized incompetence; a partner who purposely screws up a job in the house, in order to avoid doing the job in future), while others make it a point of demonstrating to you daily that they are the wisest of people. Universities are full of wise people lecturing to a room of would-be wise people.

In my professional working career, I've slogged it out working in the Government for 7+ years (Parliament Hill, as a legislative assistant to two Tory Members of Parliament), as well as in private industry. I can say with all sincerity that fools and wise people co-exist in every facet of society. There is no escaping the reality of people and, as much as you may try to act the fool, in any given situation, wisdom will eventually penetrate your brain in the same manner that the world and life can make a fool out of you. The balance of course is that we take turns wearing both hats. I've observed that the wisest of people act like fools around the opposite sex (or same sex) and fools often try to act wise and all-knowing, to cover up the fact that they are fools. I've arrived and accepted this fact now: that the dance of perception in human perspective is a game best left to the judges of fools — our magistrate judges whose jobs it is to remain logical and accountable for their actions and the actions of others. My paternal grandfather was a judge in Newfoundland and was noted for his Irish wit, when rendering judgements on the guilty. He played the fool with his particular brand of humour but always ended each day with a dose of judicious wisdom.

I may not be a judge, sitting on a district court bench, flexing my intellect, but I'm blessed with wisdom, by virtue of the number of years I've survived on this planet. I want to believe that I'm wise too, and yet there are times when I've thought myself to be a total and hopeless fool, such as pretty much every time I've fallen head over booties in love with a man and then set about to act and think like a fool who has lost track of her independent thought. We're all quick to pat ourselves on the back when we've made a wise move, yet paradoxically, we're quick to assign blame elsewhere when we've made foolish choices. And this my X-friends, is perhaps the wisdom of being a sometimes foolish human — knowing when to accept blame and when to hide.

There's no one happier than a fool except maybe the wise...