Words To Live By 1

This is the first part of a series so brace yourselves everybody.  There are certain proverbs, sayings and quotes that have helped keep me aloft over the years and I thought that I might share them, one by one, with you my dear readers.  So...  On with the show this is it!

You can lead a horse's ass to water but you can't make him think.  Pithy, eh?  I must have been sixteen, perhaps a bit younger the first time I came across this poignant little twist on the popular saying: you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.  For years it remained spray-painted, graffiti of course, on the side of the Kitsilano Public Swimming Pool, the outdoor pool at the west end of Kits Beach in Vancouver, where I live.  Intriguing, yes.  And I laughed good, loud, long and hard the first time I read it. 

So then, how is a horse's ass different from the proverbial horse here indicated?  I have just consulted my trusty Urban Dictionary where a horse's ass is referred to as a stupid, obnoxious person, indicating such lovely nouns as moron, jerk, asshole, douchebag, to name but a few, including my favourite of the list: chimpenfurher, the combined traits of a Nazi dictator and a chimpanzee.

You can lead a stupid, obnoxious person, then, who might also be a moron, jerk, asshole, douchebag or chimpenfurher to water but you can't make him think.  What is the water in this context?  Water of course is, with oxygen and carbon, one of the three necessary ingredients of life.  Water then is a source or channel of life.  Lead the horse's ass to water and he is not going to drink or think nor even recognize his sorry ugly face reflected back to him.  He will silently curse you for making him walk this unnecessary distance when really all he wanted was to be left alone with his beer, cigarettes and porn sites and instead of thanking you for granting him this golden opportunity to grow, better himself and partake of the living waters that flow from the throne of God he is going to piss in the water and kick your sorry ass till you fall in the river and drown.

Better to have him shipped off to the glue factory.

Don't waste your time trying to enlighten the unteachable.