but for my fool

We get hit by so much information everyday, it is often hard to digest it all.  It may be an age thing but I have now taken to tagging articles (with sticky notes) that I either want to tell someone about, use for my blog or a web address that I need to remember.  It was not that long ago that if I read an article in the newspaper in the evening when I got to my desk the next morning, I would be able to recall what I had read and if I had made a point to memorize the website, I would be able to do so.  Actually, it was not that long ago that I could have read the article without my now 2.5 reading glasses as well (but that is off the point).  Times have changed but I blame it more on the amount of information that is available to us than for my 52 year old, failing, menopausal brain.


This is the note I had written to myself about three weeks ago because it was something I wanted to type out and keep and share with you.   I forgot about it and now,  taking out my pad to make wedding lists (it is my lunch hour), I found it (and smiled to myself because I had completely forgotten about it).  Memorizing it would be testing myself to the limit. 

Here it is in legible print:-

I must learn to love the fool in me -

the one who feels too much, 

talks too much, 

takes too many chances, 

wins sometimes and loses often, 

lacks self-control, 

loves and hates, 

hurts and gets hurt, 

promises and breaks promises, 

laughs and cries. 

It alone protects me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbor and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and dignity 

but for my fool

 Theodore I. Rubin, MD

I find it pretty cool when you read things that make you feel that you are not alone.  That although we are all unique, we all have similar insecurities and all have a fool within.  Such a lovely word - fool.  I don't use it often enough.  

Silly fool!!