The Right To Fail…

“But you never paid attention to the lessons in which we studied those poems.”

“Yes, I did.”

“No, you did not.”

The conversation could have gone on for ever in this cosmic, if rather simplistic, ping-pong  of assertion and refutation. In the end, I was saved from the whole event by the chorus of other lads who, like a Greek chorus, chorussed back across the room,

“No, you didn’t. Sir was always asking you to ay attention and to stop talking. You never did.”

“Well, that’s not my fault. He should have made me.”

At this point, my exasperated self allowed an affirmation of my recently acquired philosophy.

“Not my fault,” I replied. “Not your fault either. All you did was to make the choice between listening and working or talking and not working. It’s a free world.”

This last bit, I knew was dreadfully incorrect.

The boy looked at…