Updating Adages

by Marien Helz

Cultures gather wise sayings as a kind of advice shortcut: learn this truth to avoid mistakes—or this error is one you’re likely to make now. The problem is, a lot of our maxims are out-dated. They deal with horses. How many families own a horse now? The examples in our proverbs have become remote, so they no longer function as the shortcut to wisdom that they were intended to be. What’s needed is an update. We’ll start with “Either fish or cut bait.”

Another version of this is “Either *** or get off the pot”—eeew, gross. Let’s forget about the second version and just look at the one that can be used in general circumstances. Sure, there are a lot of people who fish for fun, but in terms of a percentage of the general population, not many.  The axiom doesn’t have any immediacy. What does is the image of driving. We have all been going along normally on a double lane highway needing to get past the slower lane when someone decides to tool along in the passing lane. We’re blocked. Desperate, we try to go around on the right, and the slow one pulls up just enough to keep us blocked. While nothing justifies road rage, this habit certainly tempts it. Drivers shouldn’t hang out in the fast lane; they should either pass or pull in.

The new adage: Don’t dawdle in the fast lane.

Another update needed is for “That’s putting the cart before the horse.” Even fewer people hitch horses to carts than those who ride horses, but we’ve seen enough cars and trailers to know that pushing a trailer with a car would be clumsy and clearly impractical. So, pointing out that things are being done backward should deal with cars and trailers.

The new adage: That’s hitching the trailer in front.

Then there’s “Beating a dead horse.” (A lot of them deal with horses—like “Locking the barn door after the horse has been stolen.”)

Getting away from horses, we have, “That’s Water Under the Bridge.”  – Yesterday’s  sunlight might do for that one. Another is “Throwing the Baby out with the bath water.”

And we can't forget, “At the End of the Day” or, “after all is said and done,” in the final analysis.”