A couple of items ago I tested readers' knowledge and memory of "whetstones". Time now for another test.
.What do you know about "finger-posts"?
.Well, I've given you another clue in the accompanying illustration.
.A finger-post is just that-- a post with a sign, often shaped like a pointing finger or hand, indicating a direction. We find records of finger-posts dating back to the 16th century.
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Some time ago, a fellow affectionately known as "Old Humphrey" (how old was he?..about as old as me!) was travelling in a strange neighbourhood when he came to a place in the road where it branched off in opposite directions. Humphrey immediately slowed down his vehicle, not knowing how to proceed.
.It was indeed a perplexing situation, because taking the wrong road would have caused Humphrey great inconvenience, and his gas gage was hovering on the empty mark. Suddenly he spotted a finger-post which at first glance had escaped his view. A closer look revealed the left arm of the post pointing towards two distant towns, neither of which he wanted to visit.
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Much to his dismay, the opposite arm had been broken off. Ever the optimist, Humphrey took heart in thinking to himself: "Well, now at least, I know very well the road I am not going to take."
..It is not uncommon for any of us to reach a fork in the road of life. Our built-in finger-posts more often than not point in two directions -- right and wrong. Sometimes, as in the Old Humphrey story, the "right" finger is broken off, but we know very well the road we should not take.
The decision on what direction we take is always ours to make. If we choose the wrong road we might not have enough gas to get back.
..Consider well the finger-post!
1 comment:
How true Dick...sometimes we have to take a wrong (not wong, lol) road once in a while to find out where we should be going....
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