Rip Van Winkle

Last night I read Washington Irving’s short story Rip Van Winkle. This familiar, but amazing short work contains some pretty good insights into life. Take these two Proverbs...

Pro 21:25 The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour.

Pro 19:13 A foolish son is the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.

Then see them exemplified in the life of Rip and his Wife...

“The great error in Rip’s composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor..... Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. If left to himself, he would have whistled life away, in perfect contentment; but his wife kept continually dinning in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family. Morning, noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence. Rip had but one way of replying to all lectures of the kind, and that, by frequent use, had grown into a habit. He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, cast up his eyes, but said nothing. This, however, always provoked a fresh volley from his wife, so that he was fain to draw off his forces, and take to the outside of the house—the only side which, in truth, belongs to a henpecked husband. (Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle)”

Also consider this little nugget of truth found placed among the narrative.

“A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener by constant use."

May Wisdom guide our lives and spare us the consequences of foolishness,

Doug