I found today’s chapter to carry some almost sarcastic notes, some ironies that were fun to read in a way.

8 - He who digs a pit will fall into it, ...though there is a less ironic way to read this one.

9 He who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them.

10 If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength,

18 Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks.

...but back up in v10 we see a resolution to this, a less cynical comment that I think ties everything together pretty well:  “...but wisdom helps one to succeed.”

I enjoyed the irony of those parts.

But what REALLY jumped out at me this morning was the very first verse:

“Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench;

so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.”

If you picture an ointment sitting maybe in an open container, and then a fly lands in it...it destroys the beauty of that ointment, and it can destroy the aroma if it is just left in there.  And further, just a little folly or a little foolishness can destroy a lot of well-earned wisdom.  If you’ve lived long at all, you appreciate the fact that one little decision can destroy a long relationship, it can damage a reputation that was earned over time, or a savings account that was hard-fought.  Small decisions can have big consequences.  It is an irony of life that most good thing accrue through compounding, whereas destruction often comes quickly and intensely.

There is a ton of wisdom in that idea along - that good things generally come through compounding, over time, and destruction comes suddenly, often in just one or two quick decisions.  We must guard ourselves.  As we discussed yesterday, “The prudent sees danger and hides himself...he takes steps to protect himself against himself..., but the simple go on...ignoring the realities of life, of how wisdom and folly work, that wisdom lives in a world of compounding and folly is sudden...and they suffer for it.

That’s a great tie-in between yesterday’s reading and today’s.