Fool Me Once

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." - Folk Wisdom

From the pages of The Nun's Priest's Tale, part of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, can hold lessons for us in modern day life. It is a story of a group embarked upon a pilgrimage and amuse themselves by sharing stories. These stories provide each other with lessons learned by each of them.

Shared knowledge in the form of storytelling, an age old human connection.

The story told is one of a vain rooster named Chanticleer and a sly fox that is similar to fables told by Aesop in the sixth century. Chanticleer is known by the many hens to be intelligent, charismatic, and manly. One day he is sitting and has a horrifying dream of a beast killing him.

A while later he finds a fox stalking him and through sly flattery, the fox tricks Chanticleer into trusting him. It was then in a flash of vulnerability, Chanticleer is carried off by the fox, swallowed whole.

Danger strikes when our vanity closes our eyes.

The fox is chased around by the humans and from within Chanticleer convinces the fox to taunt them. When the fox opens his mouth, Chanticleer escapes. In dismay, the fox attempts to sway him back closer.

He says, “Oh Chanticleer, I am so sorry! I must have scared you when I grabbed you and brought you out of the yard. But sir, I wasn’t going to hurt you. Come on down and let me explain. I promise I’ll tell you the truth, so help me God.”

Fanciful promises and deception meant to sway us again.

“No way,” Chanticleer replied. “Fool me once, shame on you—but fool me twice, shame on me! You’re not going to trick me again and get me to close my eyes and sing with your flattery."

Yes, we can each fall to our human weakness of arrogance and susceptibility to flattery. We fall prey to distractions, taking our eyes off the task at hand. The applause of a job well done and the ensuing swagger provides just enough time for hard lessons to occur.

After our experience with the fox, we can learn and not be twice fooled. There is no shame in learning the lesson for life is a collection of earned experiences. Use those experiences to live a life filled with fewer sly foxes.

Stay inspired my friends.