Better to Be Thought a Fool...

When my brother and I were kids my dad was constantly threatening us within an inch of our lives to behave appropriately, act as he wanted us to act, etc. I'm fairly certin he was using the "fake it til you make it" approach to parenting most of the time because looking back I wonder what in the world could have possibly been going through his mind some times.

The one thing I remember he ALWAYS used to do when we were in public was turn to us an say "Abe Lincoln". He was referencing some quote that he claims was from Lincoln that goes something like this "It is better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and have proven so." In other words, he was telling us to keep our mouths shut. Whether this quote was really from Lincoln or not, I have no idea. But, I would say this is the one piece of advice that I took from my rather chaotic childhood and have applied it in many situations in my life.

PRIME example occured last night: I was minding my own business, enjoying an adult beverage at a bar, sitting next to a girl who was probably a little younger than I am. Up walks a, and I use the term loosely, man. He squeezes between us to order another beer and just so happens to lean over toward the girl who I later found out was named Jennifer. Of course I am totally annoyed by the Marlboro Reds (soft pack) that he was smoking no more than 1.2 inches from my face. I start to listen in to what he is saying to Jennifer and he leans in towards here and I can see his tatooed stomach sticking out from under his size XS white Hanes T-shirt and his studded belt with snoopy boxers pulled up the acceptable level above his jeans waist.

Studded belt man starts to ask all the typical questions that a creep such as himself does when he's trying to pick up on a girl and poor Jennifer (who has had one too many herself) says "oh, I'm in college, nursing." Captain Snoopy then replies "yeah, I skipped college. I'm the shift manager at Burger King. In today's day and age this experience is going to take me farther than college."

Let me keep this short and sweet-NO IT'S NOT.

I am 24 years old and have a job that someone at 44 would probably love to have. I am not saying it is not possible for someone to skip college and become exteremely successful. I know several handfulls of people who did that very thing. But college isn't all about the education. It's about learning how to socialize yourself outside of math class and 5th period study hall. It's about learning how to dress like an adult, it's about forcing yourself to do something that you think you will never ever need to know and then in 5 years you realize what that professor was talking about in that wreched statistics class and how it could possibly impact your life.

It's about learning how to keep your mouth shut, Mr BK. Please do not downgrade it.