Best Laid Plans ...

Best Lad Plans …

You know I often use the phrase, “best laid plans” but today I realized I do not remember the full quote..

Robert Burns a Scottish poet wrote the poem To A Mouse in it is the verse:

“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men

Gang aft a-gley

An’lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain

For promissed joy!”

Which basically translates to “ The best laid plans of mice and men. Go often askew. And leaves nothing but grief and pain For promised joy!”

Which is probably not the quote you were expecting. John Steinbeck who wrote the book Of Mice And Men was a fan of Robert Burns and took inspiration from Burns’ poem in the creation of his own story. about a couple migrant farmers trying to survive during the Great Depression. As such if you’ve heard the phrase attributed to anyone it was probably John Steinbeck and it was likely quoted as, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

If you’re interested I suggest you track down the original To A Mouse poem. Burns wrote it after destroying a mouse nest while plowing his fields.

So why the poetry lesson?

Honestly I found the tangent interesting but it does relate to what I want to talk about.

Sometimes we are that mouse, sometimes we re that man. No matter what plans you make, no matter how complex or simple they will sometimes go awry and you will be left to figure out how to manage what follows.

I say this as a person [I’m a person right?] who as too often been on the receiving end of plans that went awry and was forced to adapt or abandon them. In those moments I find my greatest strength is friendship. My second greatest is Stoicism, but the first does far more for me than the later.

It is easy, wen things go wrong, to retreat into one’s self. easy as well to wat to hide the difficulties you are facing from your friends, family, and allies because “a good friend does not make problems for their friends.” However the truth is your friends are happy to aid you through difficult times. Friends, like seeing friends succeed. They like helping their friends to better places.

Of course not everyone can help everyone at all times. Your friends may be enduring problems you are unaware of when you need assistance so do not presume you deserve their help or that a lack of help is a lack of friendship. I tell you this so that you understand that you can reach out to those who love you when you need them. You are not a bad person for needing help and admitting it.

If anything, admitting your need for help instead of hiding it is a mark of maturity.

I hope that you never find yourself in a situation where you need such advice, but I also hope that if you do you remember it and follow it.

Thank you my dear readers and God bless;

~S. Wallace