
Edwin Markham, American poet
Outwitted
-
He drew a circle that shut me out–
-
Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.
-
But Love and I had the wit to win:
-
We drew a circle that took him in!
by Edwin Markham, April 23, 1852 – March 7, 1940
That brief poem, or epigram, by Edwin Markham summarizes succinctly the idea upon which I will expound in this entry.
In the past several days, it came to light that a Shoals area Alabama entrepreneur, Garrett Shirey – who, with his brothers Reese & Austin, are founders and co-owners of Shirey Ice Cream in the northwest Alabama town of Florence, population 39,447 – had Tweeted at least two uncharacteristic and very unbecoming messages. The specific dates and times they were made, and the content can be seen in the screen shot images of the Tweets, both which appear later in this entry.
First, some background.