I’ll save you a trip to your dictionary. One of my dictionaries reads, “Paradox……a statement seemingly absurd or contradictory, yet in fact true.”
“Laughed so hard, I almost cried.” That’s a paradox we all have heard.
Will Rogers got laughs with his paradoxes. He was part Cherokee, born in Oklahoma. He joked about the Mayflower sailing Pilgrims to the New World: “My ancestors met the boat.”
Also Will got off a good one when he appeared at automobile pioneer Henry Ford’s 65th birthday: “It’ll probably be a hundred years before we know if Henry Ford helped us or hurt us but he sure didn’t leave us where he found us.”
How about ‘friendly enemies?’ Need some of that contradictory paradox potion poured across our political pouts. Used to be we could ‘rib’ each other about alma maters, choice of churches, even difference in political parties.
Nowadays, some tender-footed get agitated when you don’t agree. Even sometimes when you contradict them with the facts. Some get so upset that they remove your comments from their Facebook or Twitter ‘social’ media. Even ‘de-friend’ you.
And how about those we elect to represent us? Used to be they debated peacefully. Some of our representatives got so friendly with their political enemies that they tried to help each other. “I’ll speak for, or against you, whichever you think will help you the most.”
Enemies that are friendly much needed today. As Louis D. Brandeis, Supreme Court justice, stated: “The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.”
