being a fool

When the time comes and there is no one left to look up to ...

When the time comes and there is nothing but grass on the lawn ...

Then, in small moments, let us hope there are a few puffs of satisfaction in recalling what a ring-tailed fool strode through this life.

Yes, be a fool for something.

Anything.

I mean it: A pedal-to-the-metal, consumed-by-fire fool. Love, lust, anger, greed ... hell, even moderation or kindness. Don't be a jackass! Be a fool.

My mother once said that sins of commission were better than sins of omission. Sins of commission put meat -- however painful -- on the bone. No one, it is suggested, wants to sin, but that is a crock of shit -- virtue is just a thin-tea invitation to be a sinner and a fool.

A fool is someone who is or was lost. Utterly lost. Excuses and explanations don't compute in the world of the fool. A fool has erased himself in the world of foolishness. There is only a foolishness that will leave scars.

The kind of scars that tickle up gently between to the toes of the one standing idly on a grassy lawn.