It is April Fool’s Day folks! And even if the word fool connotes today something else - and hopefully brings a smile to your face - it is still a good day for this phrase:

“The fool looks at a finger

that points at the sky”

That phrase appeared in the 2001 French romantic comedy film Amélie, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. And it’s not hard at all to understand what is meant by that.

Not to put down animals and their wits in any way, but a dog would typically look at the finger pointing at something, not at what one points at. Of us human beings we would expect a more deductive reaction. We would typically look towards the direction the finger points.

But taking in a bigger context, how easy is it to make a big deal out of nothing, and miss the point. Kind of like looking at the finger only. So we could indeed say that a fool doesn’t understand what to look at or what is important. But a wise man/woman would. It takes wisdom, experience, humility to see the bigger picture. And who knows how big it actually is?

Anyway, here’s one for the April Fools' Day! Revealed as well as the circumstances may not be familiar to you all. A local paper announces that the county will be building a fence around it, at all its perimeters, starting a.s.a.p. Why? Well, there is a growing concern that wolves that have lately been spotted by several people in the area might start getting too bold and cause harm to the residents. The fence would offer a good protection for both the people and their livestock in this rural county.

Why would that news fool anyone? Surely that is too fanciful an idea! Well, it so happens that this local paper isn’t a daily and this particular news would reach its subscribers only after 1st of April - too late to have the desired effect. So the news was published four days prior - and so did fool some!

Have you been fooled today?