Beware the finger that points the way.
From Leaving No Stone Unthrown, one of 296 sayings written by John Sarris over thirty years.
From Alfred’s journal
A man stopped at the corner of Larch and the park road this morning to ask a woman where the post office was, and she pointed east without looking up from her phone. He went east. The post office is north, past the hardware store, and I have watched the mail truck take that turn every weekday for four years. He was gone before I could do anything about it, and a bird shouting directions is only noise anyway. What stayed with me was how fast he moved once he had the arm to follow; he had been slow and careful until somebody pointed, and then he was sure. Beware the finger that points the way. For years I thought the danger was liars, but she was not lying, she was just certain and wrong, and I cannot tell those two apart from up here either.
He reads what you tell him and writes a page of his journal back, with a few of these chosen for you. It costs nothing and asks for nothing.
Have it on something
More like it
- It is easier to judge a man than to know him.
- There are few judgments made less true by being made less harsh.
- Living in a black-and-white world drains life not only of its color, but its wisdom.
- We expect life to treat us all the same though we each ask for something different.
- Not every light lights the way home.
- Those who are lost try hardest to get others to follow.