Philosophy 101: Who Knew?
The gap between potency and act,
the scholar says, is demonstrated
by this anecdote:
A boy of 12, visiting a farm,
is given a glass of buttermilk
by the farmer's wife who tells him,
"Down the hatch, young man!"
The boy drinks the buttermilk
and almost vomits.
Decades later at a County Fair
a farmer's wife selling buttermilk
tells the boy who's now a man,
"You'll love my buttermilk!"
and offers him a glass.
He drinks the buttermilk
and vomits on her counter.
This demonstrates, the scholar says,
the gap between potency and act.