Fool’s Names

“Fools’ names like their faces, always seen in public places.” — Robin McCoy.

Actually Robin attributes the above to an “old family saying.” When I tried to find it’s origin there are lots of attributions to grandmother’s and old family sayings, but nobody like Mark Twain or Abe Lincoln so I give Robin the credit for calling it to my attention. Maybe you know it’s origin.

In these days of social media you see a lot of names and foolish words. I think for a lot of our leaders these days they are learning the wisdom of just doing their job and not drawing attention to themselves. A very long time ago, my football coach would weekly remind us to never give the opposition what he called “bulletin board” material. In other words, you always praised your opponent and downplayed your own skills. I quickly learned to refer to the defensive lineman I faced as the “best player I would ever face.”

I watched the National Championship game last night and the announcer said, about the Heisman Trophy winner, “Young men should watch how he behaves. He doesn’t taunt, he doesn’t draw attention to himself, he simply does his job and he does it better than anybody in the game.”

It is a lesson we all can learn, — “Let praise be heaped upon us by others, not by ourselves.”

About the author

Webb Hubbell is the former Associate Attorney General of The United States. His novels, When Men Betray, Ginger Snaps, A Game of Inches, The Eighteenth Green, and The East End are published by Beaufort Books and are available online or at your local bookstore. When Men Betray won one of the IndieFab awards for best novel in 2014. Ginger Snaps and The Eighteenth Green won the IPPY Awards Gold Medal for best suspense/thriller. His latest, “Light of Day” will be on the bookstands soon.

2 Comments +

  1. We can only hope our leaders can stop thinking about reelection so much and concentrate on the county’s needs. Maybe some tigers with change their stripes.

  2. Loved your article! I agree that sports can teach us many lessons, maybe the most important of which is to be humble.
    Roll Tide!

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