We have all been the victims of proverbial wisdom, especially when we were young. A large part of the job of parenting is to bombard one’s unfortunate offspring with warnings and advice in the form of easily remembered clichés posing as absolute truths. They come from everywhere although, in this country, a lot of them are the work of Ben Franklin and Dale Carnegie, and have an economic flavor: Early to bed, early to rise; A penny saved is a penny earned; Nothing succeeds like success; When fate hands you a lemon, make lemonade; Do the hard jobs first, the easy jobs will take care of themselves.
Such proverbs fall on you like a brick with a stunning rather than an encouraging effect. Well, yes, you feel like saying. Wait a minute, let’s think about this. But it’s too late. Once a proverb has been uttered it has done its deadly work. Thinking is no longer possible, or allowed.
Proverbs are thought by some to contain the essence of wisdom. Wisdom comes from experience. Experience comes from making mistakes. So proverbs are the record of numerous past mistakes, distilled into a single phrase, and turned into an example for posterity. Faint heart never won fair lady; Good fences make good neighbors. But wisdom condensed usually means commonsense lost. Faint heart quite often wins fair ladies, they like a modest approach, and neighbors fight over fences like street gangs defending their turf.
Few proverbs can stand up to close examination. Virtue is never its own reward. You can often have your cake and eat it. Ignorance rarely leads to bliss. Modern technology has made some proverbs obsolete. Now that we have a space program it’s no longer even guaranteed that all that goes up must come down.
But before we dismiss proverbs as no more than an accumulation of old prejudices we must distinguish between proverbial wisdom, and proverbial nonsense. Proverbs may be divided into those that are obviously wise and true, such as Mother Knows Best or Let Sleeping Cats Lie, and others that require further analysis. All’s Fair in Love and War; Absence makes the heart grow fonder; All Roads Lead to Rome; An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor away; Every cloud has a silver lining; Every child has a special gift.
We can apply the common sense test to these proverbs. Do they work? Are they true? If not there’s no wisdom in them.
When it comes to public radio there are some proverbial wisdoms that are true, and that do work every time: You get what you pay for; Don’t kill the goose that lays the golden eggs; Money Talks and, most important, Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
Copyright: David Bouchier
