Montaña azul, 1908
Fuente: https://www.wikiart.org/
It was presented to me in a group of bad jokes to which I am honored to belong.
Paradoxes are “ideas or situations that seem to contradict logic or common sense, but which, after deep analysis, can reveal a hidden truth or a profound meaning.”
These lines would be my “deep analysis” and see if, aside from the nervous laughter I felt when I first read the “joke”, it gets me out of the dead end it led me into.
But while I’m getting inspired, this talk of paradoxes brought to mind the one I studied at university, the one about Xenon, or “Achilles and the tortoise,” which posits that the fastest runner will never catch a slow one, since they must travel through an infinite number of midpoints, dividing the distance into an infinite series.
Honestly, today I would tell Xenon, “Dude, get a job.”
But the bad joke from my esteemed group, which I’ve saved for last, also spoke of the secret to success.
I would say: define success.
The first one that comes to mind is D.H. Lawrence’s “bitch goddess.” The writer uses this concept in his book “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” to satirize modern society’s obsession with material success, money, and ambition. It sounds very relevant today.
The “joke” in question also mentions experience, good and bad decisions.
We spend our lives navigating good and bad decisions. Over time, I’ve learned that the best ones are those made with heart. These produce glorious results. I can certify it.
Anyway, and to avoid getting too philosophical, I’ll leave you with the “paradoxical joke” in question and invite you to laugh and forget this incoherent analysis that got me nowhere.
– What’s the secret to success?
– Good decisions.
– And how do you make good decisions?
– With experience.
– And how do you acquire experience?
– With bad decisions.
Xenon fell short compared to this.
