It Ain’t Necessarily So

I wish I’d known when I was eighteen that most sayings are false.

How many times did you, as a child, have quoted at you by some unthinking adult a “saying” of some sort, to make you accept that they were right and you were wrong? Or to keep you in line and not asking too many awkward questions?

And all these “sayings” were always wise and right, were they not? They must be, because they were “sayings”.

They had, and still have, an aurora of invincibility, that is quite undeserved. Because they are “sayings”, and people have been saying them for years, we tend to accept them as being true. But they’re not.

Take “Everything comes to those who wait“, for example. Is this true?

A moment’s reflection tells us that not only is it not true, but that it is complete rubbish. And dangerous, too. If there’s one thing life should have taught us by the time we are about eight years old, it is that everything does NOT come to those who wait.

If I sit down and just wait, what’s going to happen? Will everything come to me? Will my next meal just magically appear? Will I receive all the things I have set my heart on? So that’s one “saying” put paid to.

What about “Nothing lasts forever“? So nothing lasts forever, huh? What about the Earth? The planet we live on. That perhaps hasn’t been around since the Big Bang, but it’s lasted a pretty long time so far, and in spite of everything looks set to last a few more billion years yet.

What about the stars in the sky? Or diamonds? If they’re not going to last forever, they may as well for all we humans, with our limited life spans, are concerned.

Then there’s “Money is the root of all evil“. This wicked “saying” must be responsible for more poverty and misery than nearly all the others put together. Any child believing that stupid parrot-phrase will have his sub-conscious working full time from then on to try and keep him poor. After all, if money is the root of all evil then no right-minded person would want any more of it than is absolutely unavoidable, right? How absurd.

The last one I want to mention is “Pride comes before a fall“. This implies that pride is somehow evil, or at least undesirable. So we must all go around feeling thoroughly ashamed of ourselves. Kind of reminds me of my Catholic upbringing. I still remember reading the prayer that contains this gem – “I shall speak unto my Lord whereas I am but dust and ashes.”

How’s that for instilling some self-esteem? Or the religious instructor teaching us children that it’s all right to be proud of our bikes, but it’s not okay to be proud of ourselves. No wonder most people who have had to endure this kind of nonsense have ended up hating themselves, and probably under-achieving in all their endeavours.

I’m all in favour of pride. There’s nothing wrong with it as long as it’s justified. If you’ve worked hard, if you’ve raised a family, if you’ve achieved something worthwhile then you’re not only entitled to be proud, but you’d have something wrong with you if you didn’t feel proud.

I’m sure I could make a long list of similar “sayings” that are not only wrong, but responsible for so much human misery and under-achievement.  Maybe another time.

Philip Gegan