"Only a fool test the water with both feet." - African Proverb by By Frédérick Jézégou
I first saw this proverb on display at the Charles H. Wright museum in Detroit. I instantly had this picture in my mind of someone testing the water before jumping in, as opposed to someone jumping in before testing it. It appeared that the wiser thing to do was to first test the water for precautions such as depth and temperature. If not, a person may be subjected to a rude awakening. But this simple concept can be applied to anything in life. You can apply it to anything that you should test first before committing yourself to. I personally started to think about my ex-girlfriend and how I didn't test the water first before jumping into a relationship with her. We had only known each other for a month before we decided to make our relationship official. Although I don't regret it, it would have made more sense to test the relationship - maybe by dating longer - instead of commiting myself to something I had only tested with one foot in. It's a lot easier to remove one foot if you don't feel comfortable with the water, as opposed to both feet, when its very possible to look up and find yourself in too deep.