Aphorisms

Early in my weblogging avocation I posted a list of maxims I try to live by and persuade others to consider.  Recently I came upon an interesting blog site, theartofmanliness.com. which had in one of its postings an article titled “20 Aphorisms That I Thought Were Dumb as a Boy But Now Appreciate as a Grown Man.”The authors of the site are Brett and Kate McKay. Some are common; others more obscure; but most are thought-provoking and I believe there is truth in them all. 
  

Since I don’t think aphorisms, by nature, have copywrite restrictions (or if they do they shouldn’t have) I take the liberty to share some of those from the McKay blog with you. Some of this list also came from readers who made comments; and some are from my own collection.  Surely you’ve heard at least a few of them if your mom or dad were doing their job right. If you are a mom or dad, or grandparent, you might consider picking one a day that resonates with you for a mealtime discussion with your child.

 

If you need further persuasion that you should read/share/apply some of them consider this comment attributed to philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “The largest and worthiest portion of our knowledge consists of aphorisms.”

 

A caveat: “The only way to read a [list]of aphorisms without being bored is to open it at random and, having found something that interests you, close the book and meditate.”    Prince Charles-Josef de Ligne (1735 – 1814), Austrian field marshal and writer

•         Be kind, for every man is fighting a hard battle.

•        Measure twice, cut once.

•         A place for everything and everything in its place

•        An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

•        If you lie down with dogs you wake up with fleas.

•         A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

•         You don’t rise to the occasion; you sink to your level of training.

•         Hunger is the best sauce.

•        If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.

•         The way to be nothing is to do nothing.

•       Do what you’re doing [pay attention to what you’re supposed to be about instead of getting distracted].

•        Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.

•         A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

•        A change is as good as a rest

•       A stitch in time saves nine.  [A variation is: Pay me now or pay me later--  meaning, do the maintenance now so you don’t have to replace the object before its time].

•        Strong wind doesn’t last for long.

•        If you chase two rabbits both will escape.

•         Hope for the best; be prepared for the worst.

•         The good Lord provides for every little bird, but he does not drop it into the nest.

•        The future is bought with the present.

•        Only the spoon knows what’s in the pot.

•         A ship in the harbor is safe; but that’s not what ships are built for.

•         A poor craftsman blames his tools.

•        Never point a gun at anything you don’t intend to shoot.

•        Time heals all wounds.   [or, time wounds all heels.]

•        From tiny acorns do mighty oak trees grow.

•       Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

•         Onward ever; backward never.

•         If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. 

•        No matter how much the wind may howl, the mountain doesn’t move.

•        Enough is as good as a feast.

•         Love: The condition in which another's well being is essential to your own.

•        The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

•         There’s no right way to do wrong.

Two More Poems

 Awakening  by Ron Miller

Some live in a coma

Where they hover through the years

Between birth and death

Without dreams even, but often in tears

For the Life they never lived

But in a coma observed.

Blinded by darkness,

Beguiled, finally benumbed by walls and caves

Built or dug by themselves—but sometimes by fate

Held captive by things not needed but served.

Until a friend interrupts this sleep, breaks the wall

And the light that will enter at even the smallest crack

Is admitted and illuminates a path that was just outside

         all along.

A hand is extended and invites

That first step back into the light and to that less-traveled track.

And there occurs an awakening.

So why did it take so long?

Your Presence   by Ron Miller

Your presence passes through my life

And through my dreams while we are apart.

Remembering when you stepped across

The threshold into my world

And brought your song when you arrived.

And sang to me without words.

And awakened my heart. 

And rescued a life from the lost and found.

This is Only a Test

Many years ago when my children were young I presented a challenge for them.  I told them I would give $10 to any one of them who first memorized and then sang to me the words to a song I had selected from our church hymnbook.  It was a children’s song that went as follows: 

 

In our lovely Deseret [early name for the Utah territory] where the Saints of God have met there’s a multitude of children all around.  They are generous and brave; they have precious souls to save; they must listen and obey the gospel’s sound.

That the children may live long and be beautiful and strong, tea and coffee and tobacco they despise;  drink no liquor, and they eat but a very little meat; they are seeking to be great and good and wise.

They should be instructed young how to watch and guard the tongue, and their tempers train and evil passions bind; they should always be polite, and treat everybody right, and in every place be affable and kind.

They must not forget to pray, night and morning every day, for the Lord to keep them safe from every ill; and assist them to do right, that with all their mind and might, they may love him and may learn to do his will.  

None of them ever collected. 

 

I am now raising the ante—but for a similar desire on my part.  These essays/observations/opinions that form the substance of Omnium-Gatherum-Millerum were originally and mainly written for my children. There are now many readers of my musings who are not of my family, and I appreciate their readership, but I really don’t know who among my children or step-children are among my readers—still my primary audience.

The $10 incentive for the song is still on, and now extended to grandchildren, but I have added another incentive for my children and step-children to respond to.  It is very simple: The first one who emails me with a response to this posting will get a check in the mail for $60 from me to go to a nice place for dinner with their spouse or date (and hopefully, in their dinner conversation, discuss something I have written in the past three years that has been of interest to them). 

The test is on.  Ready--get set--GO!

Destiny or Coincidence?

I have just finished reading a book, Nafanua, by ethnobotanist (one who studies the relationship between plants and people) Paul Allen Cox.  The narrative of Dr. Cox’ experience as a scientist doing research and living with his family for a year in the small South Pacific island country of Samoa was informative and compelling and I thoroughly enjoyed the read. Having lived there with my wife for nearly two years brought back many fond memories. 

 

But what was of real interest to me was how and why he came to return to Samoa after serving a mission for his (and my) Church there many years before.

I have come to the conclusion that many seemingly random or coincidental events in our lives may, in fact, have the imprint of divine destiny stamped upon them—if we step out of our ‘comfort zone’ (should be called our 'inertia zone') and engage in what we believe is ‘the Lord’s errand.’ ‘When ye are in the service of your fellow man, ye are only in the service of your God’ (Book of Mormon). This seems to be the case with Paul Cox’ return to Samoa after years of rigorous scientific training that prepared him to return to a land and a people that he loved with a desire to do good.  He was drawn there as a result of his preparation and love for a people.  And then he was supported in his work in miraculous ways. 

 

That is the key; opportunities open up for us when we have a desire and have made a preparation to do good or to contribute in a positive way to the welfare of humanity.  Not that opposition to easy accomplishment will not also occur, but experience shows that after the struggle, after the sweat, and work, and setbacks a satisfying life and a step forward for humanity can be and will be accomplished with the Lord’s help. 

 

It is greatly satisfying to feel you are making a difference in the lives of people. I have learned that he who does the Lord’s work gets the Lord’s pay—and the Lord’s help, and a destiny will begin to unfold for the worker and those worked with or for which is marvelous to behold.

Evil

Anyone with a scintilla of perception knows that there is evil about us, but few will admit it--at least expressed that way.  The term is too old-fashioned, too Puritanical,  too restraining to the modern cultural liberal. I, here, present a counterpoint.

A modern dictionary search of the word shows that it is now nuanced into near-meaninglessness or even the precise opposite of its earlier meaning.  Evil, now so reported, is ‘sickness’ or ‘being unlucky’ or ‘offensive’ or ‘not in high esteem’ or ‘rude’ or, in the Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions, ‘excellent’ (Can you believe it?). Or how about this: Dictionary.com gives as its number one ‘example sentence'-- ‘Every mortal must learn that there is neither power nor reality in evil.’   Talk about calling ‘black’ ‘white’!  Dylan said 'the times they are a-changing.’ Indeed they are. I say let's change them back. 

In the older sense (and still in the fundamental sense in the better dictionaries and for those with common sense), and in my sense, the word means ‘extreme moral wickedness,’ cruelty, or the causing of suffering by someone insensitive to the condition of one so evilly acted upon.  And so I would call kidnapping, rape or sexual abuse, emotional abuse, slaving, torture, terrorist activity, or the like, the epitome of evil.  It is this I inveigh against today.

Facile arguments to excuse the perpetrators of these kinds of evils cannot be countenanced with easy psychological explanations  or labels such as the person being ‘mentally ill’ or being sociopathic or, now in the law, being a ‘blameless predator.’ No. Sickness is a condition; evil is a behavior. It is not simply a thought. Evil is conduct, a matter of choice.  Sickness happens; evil is inflicted.  Sickness should be treated; evil must be fought. 

From where does it come?  It doesn’t come from poverty, or lack of education, or disadvantaged circumstances—as lamentable as these conditions might be. (Most of the great historical ‘lights’ to the world came from these conditions, and much of the world still lives in what we might call poverty conditions or lack 'higher' education and they are not evil.) 

No, (and now I know I will be dismissed by many) I believe it comes from a person’s allowing himself to be influenced by the adversary of all righteousness, even Satan.  Yes, I believe in the devil as I believe in God, or love, or gravitation or light or many things that influence us daily. C. S. Lewis explored this notion in his popular book The Screwtape Letters.   Many things we cannot see, or touch, or easily measure influence us for good or ill.  Satan is a powerful, unseen, negative influence and he encourages to do evil.   

As a Christian (or as a Jew) I believe there was a ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ that could be partaken of, and in that it was partaken of by our first mortal parents and brought evil into the world.  My faith teaches us that it gave us the the alternatives necessary for moral choice. Evil—Satan’s curriculum and modus operandi-- became the attractive alternative, the counterpoint, the opposition to that which was declared, by God, to be good or right or acceptable.  War, for the souls of men, was declared. 

Mankind was given a choice--good or evil; thankfully we were, and are, being encouraged to choose the right by the scriptural standards and guidelines that have been given to us.  Those who have chosen wrongly and who have reinforced their wrongful inclinations to the point of acting upon them to the injury of the innocent, to the degree we read about in the daily news with the shootings, bombings, abductions, etc., have engaged in the blackest evil and become criminal and must be removed, permanently, from society. They have forfeited their right to ". . . liberty and the pursuit of happiness"--and maybe even "life" itself.

No, I am not tolerant of that which is intolerable. Evil which causes suffering or defilement of mind or body and which is inflicted upon the weak or innocent is intolerable — is evil and beyond the pale.