Real friends are those who,
when you feel you've made a fool of your self,
don't feel you've done a permanent job.
~ Author Unknown
There is a difference between being a fool and being fooled. I know this as I have experienced both. Perhaps this is how I developed my quirky sense of humor!
Another life time ago, in my first marriage, my then husband and myself had been invited to attend a church couples club to meet possible new friends at the church we most recently had visited. The monthly group secured a local gym for a night of fun and games.
It was easy to feel comfortable among both the men and the women as they obviously had been friends for years and knew each other very well. The majority of the members were professionals and over the years, they became dear friends.
One woman had established herself as a nurse and was the mother of two children. She was an attractive and seemingly compassionate woman, but her friends seem to be teasing her about a private joke. Curiosity got the best of me and I asked what the joke was about. They told me that Sharon read palms and I laughed. "No, really, she does, but if she were to read ours, you would only think she had gathered the information from us over our years of friendship." Sharon talked a little bit about how she had discovered her skill as a child and it was a fun thing to do, but as she grew older, she felt more of a responsibility about this gift.
Feeling even more curious, I said, "Well, you certainly don't know me, so why not read my palm?" I had never met this woman before nor anyone else for that matter and so she did.
Sharon proceeded to tell me things about my personality by simply looking at my hand. She was right on target and I was having fun. Then she became more serious and told me information about my past that she would have no way of knowing about me. She inquired if I wanted her to go on, and with gathering anxiety I said yes. So she proceeded to tell me specific details about my future ... how many children I would have, how many times my heart would be broken, and where I would live.
It was at that point I knew this woman was "wrong" as I "knew" I was not having any more children, I did not believe in divorce, and our little family had chosen this thriving town as our life time home. I felt that Sharon was a well intentioned woman, but she simply was wrong.
Over the years, I grew to know Sharon personally and found her to be a woman of integrity and skill. After my divorce I moved away and thought of her shared insights years before. When I remarried and had more children, I thought of her again.
More years passed and I found my self at a dinner for new comers in a community I had just moved into. I happened to sit next to a realtor. He was quite friendly and it was obvious that he was very professional as well as successful. While we were waiting for dessert and coffee to be served, he told me that he could read palms and asked if he could read mine. This wasn't for table entertainment, just a discussion between two strangers sitting side by side. So once again I said sure.
This gentleman was as accurate as Sharon had been years prior, except from this stage of my life, the information slid together a little more easily. I also discovered that he was much more capable than just reading palms. He was picking up information about me from some realm unknown to me. Later, I wondered where he was so that I could tell him how on target he was, except I had the sense that he already knew!
One last story ...
Many years ago, a friend's father passed away. He had been a neat old guy, fun and spunky. He had played cards every day with retired business men. After several months of his passing, my friend and her children took her mom to a local fair. There happened to be a palm reader available and the family teased their mother/grandmother into getting her fortune told. As a joke she agreed.
The palm reader told this elder that her husband had recently passed. She said that he had been very successful in winning at cards with his friends. She inquired if the woman knew her husband kept a stash of several thousand dollars in their basement ... east wall, so many bricks up from the floor.
My friend's mother was guffawing as she exited the little room. How outrageous and preposterous! She could hardly beleive she had paid for such drivel! But she went directly home with her daughter and grandchildren, went to the east wall of the basement, found some loose bricks and discovered $20,000 cash!
There are fools, fools that are fooled, and foolishness, but with a careful open mind, one might just learn a thing or two or 20!
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