The proof of the pudding is to be found in the fruit of the tree. ‘Eateth of this fruit, and see that it is sweet,’ the Lord told us. Or was it Satan? Or does it even matter? ‘Eat you of the fruit you shall see that it is sweet’, saith God/Satan, and who are we to ignore this solemn invitation? How can we ignore this invitation – show me someone who does? We all obey the law. It all comes down to the proof of the pudding and how are we to obtain this proof except by eating it? Is there another way? We could try to get someone else to eat it and watch them carefully to see what happens to them when they do but no one ever learnt anything that way, did they? We have to make our own mistakes in life, do we not? It’s no good me trying to get other people make my mistakes for me now is it? What kind of a cockeyed idea would that be? They may learn something from their mistake of letting someone else tell them what mistakes to make but we surely won’t. No indeed, we will be watching on from the sidelines, making our notes, working away our doctorate, trying to become wise. ‘If a fool persists in his folly’, says William Blake, but he doesn’t say anything about letting someone else persist in your folly, or about persisting in some other fool’s folly. Or does he? Maybe it all comes down to the same thing in the end. Eventually, via the long, long road that we all have to tread. It’s all folly really anyway. Folly, folly, nothing but folly. The proof of the pudding is in the eating so they say, so don’t refuse the fine meal that you have in front of you. Don’t turn your nose up at it. Lick the gravy off the plate. Get stuck right in and give way to your baser instincts – you know you want to, as the adverts say. Eat you of the fruit and see for yourselves whether it is sweet or not, the Lord tells us. Or is it Satan? I keep getting confused on that one. ‘Get it right,’ you complain, fed up with my eternal confusion. ‘Can’t you remember your Scriptures? Can’t you remember what you were taught in Sunday school?’ Every man should have a hobby so they say and mine is getting confused on essential points. Some say God made the world, others blame Satan, but who are we to believe? Who is telling the true story? They gave us our pudding and so now we have to eat it. Our teachers were perfect in their folly, perfect in their stupendous ignorance, and so maybe they were teaching us true after all. Your wise men are fools and your fools are wise and the fools see it as their job to teach the wise! How else otherwise could they proceed as the fools that they are? They’re only obeying their own law, after all, as are we all.