MOTHER'S SAYING -- AGEING ODDITY

Best wishes to mothers the world over with this repeat post, some current editing, I wrote here years ago.

My mother enjoyed language, words, and the double-play of meanings.  Prominent in my mother's time was Dorothy Parker who was quite adept with word humor as a later quote will attest.  Ms. Parker is described in Wikipedia as "an American poet, writer, critic and satirist based in New York; she was best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles".

Phrases, Sayings, Idioms, and Ageing

Lying in bed one recent night thoughts of the world's financial precariousness caused me to wonder why so many corporate, financial and government leaders fail to accept and implement problem solving solutions provided them in ways to benefit their country's population multitudes and not primarily just the 1-2% obscenely wealthy as in the U.S.

Somehow, I evolved into thinking about how we receive information for ourselves or that we provide others and yet do not often apply what is in their as well as our own best self-interest in a balanced approach benefiting all.

I thought of my mother's youth occurring during horse and buggy days, the changes and necessary adaptations wrought in her world.  Autos, planes were invented.  Women's right to vote the year she became age 21 and cast her first ballot were some of the highlights in her time.

What else came to my mind was typical of what I've often experienced since my mother's death years ago.  The older I become, the more I think of her with increasing understanding, identification with some of her aging experiences.  One of her favored sayings will pop into my mind as did this one:

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." 

My curiosity led me to this information from phrases.org.uk.  Interestingly, that Old English Homilie was recorded as early as 1175, the oldest English proverb that is still in regular use today.

"The proverb 'lead a horse to water' has been in continuous use since the 12th century.  John Heywood listed it in the influential glossary A Dialogue Conteinying the Nombr in Effect of all the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue:

'A man male well bring a horse to the water, But he can not make him drinke without he will.'

It also appeared in literature over the centuries in a variety of forms.  For example, in the play Narcissus, which was published in 1602, of unknown authorship, subtitled as A Twelfe Night merriment, played by youths of the parish at the College of Saint John the Baptist in Oxford:

Your parents have done what they coode, 

They can but bringe horse to the water brinke,

But horse may choose whether that horse will drinke.

It wasn't until the 20th century that 'lead a horse to water...' got a substantial rewrite, when Dorothy Parker reworked it from its proverbial form into the epigram 'you can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think.'

I don't mean to offend the sensibilities of any reading this, but Parker has been considered to be quite a wit.

Noticing English wording and spelling in days of yore, I wonder how our language as we speak and write will evolve, perhaps looking antiquated to those encountering our current communications in future generations.

Aging observations Dorothy Parker is quoted as saying a few years before her death in an interview with Gloria Steinem with which my mother, I'm sure, and now I can agree.

"You know, the odd thing about being old is that you see something--something especially good or rotten or funny, and you think, 'Oh, I must show this to so-and-so, it's just his [or her] sort of thing.'  " She smiled, and walked slowly to the door.  "And what's odd--is there are so many gaps in the circle now--that so-and-so is gone."

 

WHAT'S NEXT?

Can't believe it, but summertime is here in Southern California with temperatures in the 80's -- pushing 90 degrees in record February heat.   We're all wondering what happened to our El Nino rains?   Something about a high pressure system pushing the storms to the northern part of California as instead we're receiving dry hot high winds..

That's just fine as long as they keep dumping snow in the four mountain ranges -- Shasta Cascade, Klamath-Siskiyous, Sierra Nevada, and the Coastal Mountain Range -- all together said to be a total of 138 mountains more or less.   Snowmelt from those Sierra Nevada mountains  provide many of us a portion of the water we rely on as described here.    Now weather predictors tell us El Nino's rains will come the end of February and in March -- we'll see!

Last Weekend I checked out my local area strawberry patch as February had been the earliest I had ever known those addicting luscious red fruits to be ripened for sale.   Not only was the stand open, but they had first begun selling berries this year in December -- just before Christmas!   Had I only known I would have been their first customer.   One more indicator of our climate changing.

I continue to wonder what's next in this political year as candidates have rigorously pursued voters, first in Iowa and next in New Hampshire.  Now they're off to South Carolina with their numbers not winnowed down enough to suggest who would actually receive their political party's nomination though both major political parties have unexpected front runners.   Rumbling in the background continues that a possible third party candidate may join the fray if he doesn't like the two major party finalists selected.

So far this rather unorthodox election campaign has resulted in an increase in the number of election primary voters.  More citizens fulfilling the voluntary responsibility expected of those of us  living in our democracy/republic is encouraging.   Pundits, candidates and voters are finding not much is predictable which makes this election of interest to more people, I think.  

I  know what principles, political issues and plans to resolve our nation's problems are important to me.  I know the candidates whose views I can most closely share presently.  But we have many more election primaries in the months ahead as each candidate tries to effectively express themself to convince voters to select them.  The bottom line is the candidate in each party who becomes their party nominee needs to be electable!  

I don't think Madeline Albright and Gloria Steinem did their candidate and women voters  any favors by suggesting we should vote on the basis of gender.   Coming from an older generation, cognizant first hand of gender discrimination, I do understand the intent of their words.  But, frankly, I was offended, and I think many younger generation women might be resentful, too.  Hopefully, the candidate won't be penalized by voters.    

Some pundit discussions I've heard have included observations that democracies around the world are being clobbered by extremist anti-establishment candidates.  The world is truly in a state of flux and our nation is not an exception.  What could this mean for our future?