Never try to teach a pig to sing it wastes your time and it annoys the pig
I have heard this quote repeated many times in my life and it always makes me laugh.
In putting this piece together I wondered what the origin of the saying was. Many online sources say it was science fiction writer Robert Heinlein who coined the phrase. Others, attribute it to, of all people, Mark Twain. Still a whole group of other sources insist it is urban folklore.
Although I am a strong believer that we can do most anything we set our minds to do, I also believe that there are some things one cannot change no matter how hard you try, and that continued efforts might cause the subject of your efforts to revolt.
Teaching a pig to sing might be akin to trying to teach a cat to fetch.
At some point we all need to know when to accept the nature of things, and understand that there are some outcomes we can influence and bring change to, and that there are other things that are not capable of being changed or altered.
Well sort of . . . Luci fetches only when he is in the mood to fetch . . . but that's a start.
That makes me laugh, too.
*** A wooden game board is covered front and back in bits of papers and tissues. Scrabble tiles spell out the quote, and a ceramic pig shows a little attitude.