Clichés Revisited

In an early weblog posting I confessed to being fascinated by the clichés we (some of us) use.  I argued for the serious contemplation of some of these homilies because I was, and still am, convinced that many contain truths that might well benefit us if we applied them.  I know, of course, that many clichés can be easily confounded or countered by other clichés, but the wholesale dismissal of common aphorisms, maxims, disparagingly called ‘old wives tales,’ or other supposedly trite sayings have  disadvantaged many people in the ‘common sense’ department or at least impoverished their general education.

 

I am not suggesting that one take a college course in clichés, but I am suggesting that much of our culture and a greater understanding of our ancestors’ or societal norms and values are embedded in some of these ‘old school’ sayings. 

A few of these clichés that have been validated by serious research are as follows:

·        Laughter is the best medicine.

     The healing powers of laughter have gained considerable credibility in scientific studies of healthy aging, lower stress levels, better sleep quality, and diabetic lower blood sugar levels.

  

·        The early bird catches the worm.

     ‘Morning people’ have consistently, as a rule, performed better academically (have higher g.p.a.’s and do better in advanced classes), have more success in life, and have better, less self-limiting or self-destructive personality traits.

·        Old habits die hard.

     “We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” –Aristotle.  Obviously, never introduce to yourself something that you don’t want to have stay with you forever. The brain neuro-chemical dopamine is released and is a powerful reinforcer for habits—good and bad.

  

·        A picture is worth a thousand words

     Images are more easily remembered than words.  Researchers have found that about 65-70% of people are visual learners.  (Not me, however; I relate much better with rich language because I ponder the meaning and nuances that more exact language provides and suggests.  I always enjoy books more than the movies made of them.)

·        When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

     There is a power of psychological resilience.  Evidence shows that the more often people rise to challenges (and the sooner they pick themselves up after they fall) the tougher they become and more able to handle subsequent challenges.

   

·        A watched pot never boils.

    Well, of course it boils, and just as rapidly as an unwatched pot.  But the point is that time is psychologically perceived as slowing down.  So stay engaged with something more productive than just watching heating pots or waiting for the phone to ring and time seems to go much more quickly. (Whip out your pocket card of quotations, scriptures, formulas, etc. you want to memorize while standing in line or watching pots. I guess people now do this with their ubiquitous cell phones.)

 

Finally, I further confess that I occasionally pick up a dictionary or book of common quotations or clichés  just for the sheer pleasure of reading things that I wish I had learned earlier in my life.  It is an expansive (not expensive) habit that easily trumps the banal or unproductive habits that many fall into.

A Principle -Governed Life

My brethren in Church and I were recently discussing the difference between being principle-directed or being rule-directed in the conduct of our lives.  It was clearly the consensus that being required to adhere to a rigid rule-directed life was much more onerous than the liberation experienced by those who knew and lived the guiding principles from which specific rules were derived. 

 

The rule-directed life of the Orthodox Jew, for example, may, as intended, provide very clear direction on specific challenges or life situations, especially if the person were living in antiquity or in an all-Orthodox community.  Of course many commandments are applicable for any age of man, whether for Jew or Gentile, such as the commandment not to kill or not to insult or harm anybody with words.   But many of the 613 identified rules or commandments in the Torah are now obsolete—e.g., those regarding slaves, animal sacrifices, etc.  They were given by God to a people who had lived under bondage and who needed the specificity of direction of rules until they had matured enough to follow a prophet's counsel and thereby make appropriate personal application to the principles from which the rule grew.

So too in George Washington's 110 'Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour." I think that most people of maturity would understand the principle and not, today, need his rule number six: "Sleep not when others speak, sit not when others stand, speak not when you should hold your peace, walk not on when others stop."

 

For the young or immature or for situations that can brook no tolerance for deviation, rules have their place.  Sports rules are common examples in our time.

As a public school teacher I found it necessary to have a list of classroom rules that were often quite specific.  They were necessary because  I could not generally  count on the maturity level of the students to make the leap to applying the principle (e.g., the rule, “Do not touch other people or their property without their permission” would be more necessary for young children than the principle from which it derives: the so-called Golden Rule, or principle of doing unto others only what you would wish having done unto you).  The rule, in this case, automatically applied the higher principle.  But we all know that even supposedly responsible adults need rules: “Speed limit 35 m.p.h” contrasted to the more maturely understood principle of “Drive at a safe speed for the conditions.”  The principle, however, would not suffice for the need for a very specific rule such as "Drive on the right side of the road."

 

Rules, by design, offer little choice: either one obeys them or disobeys.  They are specific. They are applied equally to every individual irrespective of the motivation of the rule keeper or violator.  In that regard they are ‘fair,’ more easily enforced, and so, important, to the immature.

  

Principles, on the other hand, are more general, universal, timeless, and self-evident.  They include such things as responsibility, integrity, mutual respect, moral authority, love, the inseparability of ends and means, and the intrinsic value of life.  

If one understands and applies the larger principle, the practices begin to fall into place.

All this leads me to wondering if in all of our rule-making we might always try to make clear the principle that is at its root: the ‘why,’ not just the ‘what’ or how. 

   

Discover and apply the ‘principles of life’ to your life.  A principle-guided life is much more satisfying and growth-promoting than the alternative. 

A World Split Apart

Such was the title of an address delivered at Harvard University, June 8, 1978 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.   So is the reality of the world today. 

 

At 6:00 a. m. this morning (26 February 2015) my alarm clock went off with the NPR morning news.  I have never heard so much bad news pertaining to acts of terrorism and violence coming out of those twin dysfunctional regions of the world—the middle East and the African continent.  Our angst is that the Islamic violence will increasingly spill out of those regions into the still, comparatively, more peaceful regions of the world.  It is more than just a disquieting feeling; it is inevitable that it will.

But until then, provided that the terrorists do not get weapons of mass destruction (wmd’s) or atomic, biological, chemical weapons (abc’s), as they are called, their atrocities will be relatively limited—a “sting of a mosquito,” as described by one recent commentator, compared to what the West (including Israel) could do to their base’s of operations if the Western nations were provoked enough.  But the sting (more accurately ‘bite’) of a mosquito of the wrong kind (for us) can lead to a fatal disease.

That scenario, as evaluated by other commentators, is exactly what the terrorists want.  The titles of Solzhenitsyn’s address ‘A World Split Apart’ and evangelist Billy Graham’s book title of fifty years ago ‘World Aflame’ portend such a condition:  “The next war . . . may well bury Western Civilization forever” (A. Solzhenitsyn).  “I can’t explain 9/11, except the evil of man” (B. Graham), and, I add, the reality of Satan. “Auschwitz stands as a tragic reminder of the terrible potential man has for violence and inhumanity” (B. Graham).   Bible readers will know, and not be surprised that we are in the “last days” before the final great battle between the forces of good and evil:  “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of war” (Matt. 24:6), and from that most unpopular of Old Testament books, Joel, or of New Testament books, Revelation, the plagues of the last days leading up to Armageddon, which is all-out war—World Aflame. 

    

Though the Homeland Security threat level has been constantly turned up to level yellow or orange, ever since November 11, 2001, it seems that that will be our ‘new normal’; and maybe just as well, for great troubles are coming:  but, “If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:30).  [Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will want to review the entire 38^th Section; non-members who have any curiosity at all or real concern for their future  would do well to find and investigate this Latter-day scripture as well as the book of Joel and John’s Revelation in their Holy Bible.]