there’s a disconnect
between knowing and doing
– I know it too well

Comments

• April 10, 2009, mikaelah writes: I like your haiku. It has me thinking about what it is I think I know...
• April 11, 2009, howard writes: I struggle with this issue. I guess many of us do. Some things we only know, but don't apply -- how well do we really know something if we don't apply it to our lives?
• April 22, 2009, speener writes: Ain't it the truth.

*
I still remember in high school when, as a young fan of Billy Shakespeare, I first realized that a few of my favorite words of wisdom were penned for a character who struck me as an utter fool. That character was, of course, Polonius from the play Hamlet, and this haiku references one of his most famous lines (“To thine own self be true”).

The incongruity of it fascinated me, that a line of such wisdom would be spoken by a blithering imbecile. That said, I am aware there are those who believe Polonius’s character was smarter than he appeared and that the dimwit act was done to curry favor with King Claudius. Which, in a way, may be even more ironic.