One day, many years ago now, a friend of mine said to me that the foibles of other people would test my character and make me a better person if I allowed them to. I had never really given much attention to the word foibles before he said that to me even though I was aware some people had funny little ways which were downright irritating. However, now I know what it means, it has become one of my favourites nouns.
Foibles has a lovely ring to it. Foy bulls. Apparently foibles or furballs as I like to call them are a minor weakness or eccentricity in someone's character. It is a minor defect and does not deserve punishment but it can be irritating or annoying. And if you think about it for a second furballs, the collection of fur that a cat sometimes coughs up and foibles, a minor weakness or eccentricty, are quite similar. Let me explain. And I must warn you this is no explanation for the weak stomached nor does it really have any scientific merit.
I base my observations from my viewpoint as an agricultural farm girl type of chick. After years of relating to cats I modestly consider myself quite an expert on their funny little ways.
You may not have had the bad fortune to have a cat attempt to cough up a furball on your bed in the middle of the night but I nearly did once. Fortunately the furball did not land on the bed because I woke up in time. The cat plopped onto the floor with a well-aimed shove and delivered a wet, sausage shaped collection of strands of fur there. With an indignant flick of its tail it jumped back onto the bed and went back to sleep. I grumblingly found something to clean up the mess and took ages to get back to sleep because my feet were cold and my hands smelled of disenfectant.
You may also have never seen a furball in real life but I can assure you when someone coughs up a minor weakness or eccentricity it is just like they have egested a ball of fur from their stomach. It's a bit gross and embarressing and annoying.
For example let us think of a minor weakness like not listening. Some people, well many people, are not good at listening. They like to talk especially about themselves but they do not like to listen unless someone is telling them how great they are. It is a weakness in their character. If you spend too much time with them it can get annoying and if you are in a group of people where one person talks too much it can be embarrassing. And depending on the situation it can even be a bit gross.
A bit like a furball really.
The great thing about foibles is we all have them. Little flaws and cracks in our character that have the potential to wind others up.The trick is we need to learn how to deal with the foibles of others which is easier said than done. I do not really have much wisdom on that except to try and deal with foibles in the similar understanding way to how I cope when my furry purry girl coughs up a furball.
I suspect that like cats often get more furballs as they get older our foibles become more apparent and harder to hide as we age. We also are less tolerant of other people's foibles.
The good news is while all humans have foibles not all cats have furballs which is where I guess the similarity ends.
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