I would hazard a guess that most any of us would not like to be played for the fool. Who amongst us enjoys the uncomfortable realization that someone got the better of us? More often than not, I lived a life that guarded against looking foolish or being caught with not knowing. Either it is the years that have pedaled by or wisdom finally garnered which allow me to release the need to not be fooled and, more importantly, able to be—at least a little—foolish.
What being fooled or being foolish boils down to is the acceptance of being vulnerable. This can be the most difficult of all tasks because we are not programed to show weakness. We want the appearance of having the answers. It may be as basic as the animal instinct of fight or flight. But what happens when we do neither?
What happens when we let down that guard, open that space within us that exposes all that we do not know—all that we have not yet understood? What happens is we live fully. We become part of life that is uncertain. We indulge in living that may be tenuous at times but always laced with great possibility.
For a tradition that goes as far back as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, it seems being played for the fool and playing a fool is just something that came with our birthright. There is always time and need for great wisdom and decorum, but should we not have a little room to let some foolishness in?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. To play the fool, then good for us!