The Joy of Aphorisms

Happy are those … whose hearts are set on the pilgrim’s way – Psalm 84

Today, as I write this, I see it is National Have Fun at Work Day (January 31). I don’t know what clearing house national holidays have to pass through to become what they’re declared to be, but I’m glad someone is looking out for the workers of the world.

Although I am retired, I enjoyed work and had a lot of fun while I worked. Now, I know there are some jobs where having fun would be a trifle difficult. I’m not sure digging ditches is a bundle of laughs, and although we have machines that do much of the work people used to do by hand, armed with little more than pick-axe and shovel (and some brawn), the fact is that using heavy machinery to do those jobs takes concentration if they’re to be done safely and properly.

For the most part, I have fun when I work. My grandmother used to say, “A light heart makes for a light job.” Grandparents used to have many sayings like that. I think it was a generational thing. You don’t hear too much these days about grandparents spouting off bits of wisdom. You don’t find too many having their hairdressers turning their hair blue these days, either.

It seems like my grandparents always had a bit of wisdom to share whenever something came up: Rising early in the morning makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise; don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched; it’s always darkest before the dawn.

Of course, many of those old chestnuts came from Aesop’s fables or were mangled from the Bible. For instance, they might have said, “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” The actual quote is, “The one who spares the rod hates his child,” and the reference to rod does not mean spanking or beating. The rod was a shepherd’s tool used to defend the sheep from predators, groom the sheep’s tangled wool (making it easier to clip during shearing season), and examine the sheep for wounds. It was NOT used to beat sheep, otherwise the flock would not trust the shepherd to lead them to green pastures or still waters.

So, to spare the rod was about protecting and caring for one’s child; to spare the rod (throw it away), then, meant you hated your child! Oh how that bit of “wisdom” got mangled, eh?

Today’s world, of course, has replaced a lot of these aphorisms with Memes and snarky comments. Sarcasm seems to be the ideal response to anything we see or hear – wisdom with a bite (for “sarcasm” means to tear the flesh). They may “tickle our funny bone” (another maxim from yesteryear), but do they help us get along in a more civilized manner?

While my grandmothers’ dictums (dicta?) and “sayings” (grandmothers is plural because they both had them and said them) may seem hokey today, they generally made sense.

Even if a bible verse got mangled, the things they said were intended to encourage people to “take heart,” to look for “the light at the end of the tunnel,” to “consider the needs of others” before taking that last piece of chicken or cookie.

In all of that, they seemed a lot happier with life around them then than people do around these parts today. “MYOB” they’d say (Mind Your Own Business), “you don’t need to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong.” I think they were right most of the time.

My life is messed up enough without trying to control the words, thoughts, and deeds of others. I have many opinions about a great many things, and yet I have found the world has not “beat a path” to my door to hear them. I haven’t gotten an invitation to vacation atop some mountain so the guru de jour can take a break from dispensing his or her own aphorisms for a world hungry for them (aphorisms, not gurus).

Maybe we should bring back those little wisdom sayings, especially considering how little wisdom we have in our communities. It might take away some of the heaviness and darkness, and that would make for a little more fun at work and play, here in this our valley.

I would certainly hope so – just don’t blue your hair.