Mom Says It Best: ‘I Bear No Malice’

ACROSS AMERICA — Before she died 43 years ago, my mom put an “X” by a short poem that held meaning for her that I wonder about all these years later.

But the poem offers some sound advice that I think of every time I think about Mama, which is nearly every day in one way or another. Here it is:

An Ethical Grook
By Piet Hein

I see and I hear and I speak no evil;
I carry no malice within my breast;
yet quite without wishing a man to the Devil
one may be permitted to hope for the best.

It’s from a collection called “Grooks.” Hein, a Dutch philosopher, mathematician, scientist and author, wrote these brief poems that are elegant in their simplicity and succinctly convey irony, parody and satire.

She marked only one other Grook collected in the book that my aunt gave her a few months before she died. My six siblings and I understood why she marked it.

A Maxim for Vikings
By Piet Hein

Here is a fact that should help you fight a bit longer:
Things that don't actually kill you outright make you stronger.

My mother’s “X” by “An Ethical Grook” saved me from telling some people who probably deserved it to go to hell.

But whom would my sweet mama have said that to if good manners hadn’t stopped her?

Now, there’s a question that keeps her memory alive.

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