New Year Proverbs

We are in a time of transition.  2012 is making its final exit preparations as 2013 is anxiously perched at our doorstep.  It’s about looking backward and forward and also staying in the present, isn’t it?  I feel like I did when I was a kid and my family took a vacation that included stopping at the Four Corners Monument.  For a little country girl, it was a heady experience to stand with one foot in Colorado, one foot in New Mexico, one hand in Utah, while looking up and out towards Arizona.  I was here and there and also looking ahead at what seemed like a world of possibilities.

And those possibilities were always accompanied by some powerful words and phrases that remain with me to this day. Some folks call them proverbs, but I have always thought of them as “Grandma-isms.”  That’s because as a child, my grandma always shared one or ten or more of them with me on a daily basis. No matter my age or circumstance, Grandma had the words she believed would inform and guide me. When I stood next to her at the stove anxiously awaiting dinner, she would tell me “a watched pot never boils”.  When I was in junior high and wanted to look like everyone else in my class, she said “all cats are gray in the dark.”  When I said something I later regretted and wanted to take back, she would say, “you can’t unring a bell.”  She was the Proverb Queen.

Recently my sweet husband and I channeled my dear grammy and discovered some new bits of wisdom to help guide us in the new year ahead.  First, we took common proverbs and lopped off the ending of each. Then, we gathered the two boys we love to the stars and think of as our grandsons.  We gave them the beginnings of the proverbs and then asked them to write what they thought would make sense to finish them out. The boys are six and eight and full of sugar and spice along with some fine helpings of tabasco sauce and cowboy rumpus, so we knew the results would be great.  And indeed, they were.  As the saying goes … out of the mouths of babes!

So, as we embrace 2013, I’d like to share some of our boys’ proverbs, written as only children can.  At first glance, their words are pure comedic joy. Yet, on further reflection, pearls of wisdom reside therein.  First, “don’t put all your eggs … into the chicken soup.”  Who can argue with that?  It reminds us to pay attention to what we’re doing, think before we act and yes, keep a few eggs in the fridge “just in case”!  Next is “a fool and his money …  is bad.”  This just might encapsulate the latest gridlock in Congress, don’t you think?  Again, a reminder for us to take time to think and remember that money is best kept in wise hands if meaningful results are desired.  And finally, “you can’t judge a book … by an author.”  Whether it’s books, authors, neighbors, co-workers or strangers on the street, it reminds us to be less quick to judge, assume or react.  If we do, we might just miss a good read or an opportunity to make a new friend in the new year ahead.  Amen!

So, on behalf of everyone at Neill Public Library (and our wise grandsons), I wish you a most happy new year ahead, filled with opportunities, many moments of joy and yes, a few wisdom-filled proverbs!  

Kathleen Ahern, Youth Service Librarian

published in Moscow Pullman Daily News, December 29th, 2012.