People talk of giving their all
As if they really know
How to do that.
And people who do not even
Give with half of themselves
Talk about “100 percent”
So cavalierly, as if it were
Easily within the reach of
Anyone who takes a notion
To give a little harder.
Some even speak—
Quite stupidly, I might add—
About giving “110 percent”,
As if one could try harder
Than his hardest.
(They do this, it seems,
To fool the lazy
Into trying harder—
As if no one who falls short
Does so by more than
One eleventh of
What is needed.)
And all this is but a signal
Of our cluelessness
About ourselves.
And the lives
And societies we build
Are the proof of it.
And I don’t say all this
To unleash my Inner Grouch
Upon the world,
For I cannot measure
What percentage of myself
I invest, either.
And it seems to me that
This subject is worthy of being handled
Honestly, rationally, and responsibly,
Lest we simply flatter ourselves—
Which is what we seem to do so often
With such talk.
