Large Fierce Mammal

My first year Physics Professor, the Esteemed Dr, Ernest Guptill who died tragically in a boating accident on 20 March 1976, used to say that you only had to know two things to earn a PhD in Physics:

1. That Force equals Mass times Acceleration; and
2. You can’t push on a string.

I’m constantly astonished at how many times in a year I find myself calling upon that second point in conversation, although interestingly never with my Wife.

Today, in response to the winds of our time, both stiff and flaccid, and in recognition of the Truth of point 2, I offer this reminder of the perils that lie in the extremes of flexibility.

Bendable

By LFM

The swordsman needs his timing
And a weapon he can trust.
An arm that’s supple in the play,
To stiffen in the thrust.

If rigid finds its breaking point
Before the job is done,
Its strength is rendered null and void
Ere battle can be won.

And flexible’s all well and good
But something that I’ve found —
It matters not if in the breeze
Your back’s against the ground.

Goode Scholar, learn these simple Truths
And cleave them to your mind.
Recline or topple in the test
Is not how Strength’s defined.

Be stiff, unyielding, hard as stone,
Or pliant as you please,
You won’t stand long for anything,
And fall for any breeze.