Page 55 - The Irony Board
P. 55
Into the Body
Nothing you have
Is so bitter
There’s nobody
Sweet enough on
It to steal it.
This warning from the realm of relative value combines the intent
of several fine old proverbs (a bird in the hand, one man’s meat, a
fool and his money, the grass is greener). Life’s bittersweet taste
comes not merely from an alternation of good and bad experiences,
but more poignantly from events, people, and objects partaking of
both qualities.
Gluckman apparently was unaware that Oscar Wilde had already
described a similar irony in The Picture of Dorian Gray:
“Faithfulness! I must analyse it some day. The passion for
property is in it. There are many things that we would throw
away, if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.”
53
