If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you, but answer: "He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone."What looks like a trick of rhetoric that leads to some sage advice is also a theme of Ricardo Sternberg's "The Bees" collected in Some Dance. The poem ends with these lines:
Teach your vengeful beesCertainly a stoic take on apiary business which may not align with the facts of pollen and nectar yet is sweet nonetheless.
the trick (or is it wisdom?)
that allows them to distill
from the thorn of grievance,
the sweetest honey.
Sugary camp acid.
And so for day 357
06.12.2007