The Best and the Worst

This poem illustrates what happens when you fail to properly heed Rabbi Bunim’s advice about the importance of keeping a coat with two pockets. In each pocket, the Rabbi says, you should put a slip of paper, on one of which has be written “For my sake was the world created”  while on the other it says “I am only ashes and dust.”  The Rabbi stresses each slip being better suited to different occasions, the two of them are therefore better held apart in separate pockets.

This poem illustrates the peril and insight that result from resort to a single pocket.

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Yesterday around sunset

While walking my dogs

I put a bag of dog poop

In the pocket of my fleece

Along with another bag

Of doggie treats

And when I got

To the garbage can in town

I threw away the wrong bag

And continued home

With a pocket full of poop

The best and the worst

Become interchangeable, it seems

That’s sometimes how life works