As a child in school, I spent hours learning things that would have zero relevance for adult life. For instance, under what circumstances would I ever make use of my knowledge of the Collective Nouns for penguins, slaves, whales, quails, arrows?

There was a period when I learnt up all the proverbs I came across. I suspect that the reason was a perverse delight in setting up strong rivals to the Hokkien proverbs which my mother daily threw at us, filled with all kinds of earthy and crude scatological references. English proverbs, on the other hand, sounded more dignified, and moreover, had a lovely rhythmic quality when voiced aloud.

So I diligently wrote down and learnt by heart not only those proverbs that my teacher taught us in class, but also those privately researched: ‘More haste, less speed,’ ‘A stitch in time saves nine,’ ‘Waste not, want not’. I was especially fond of those that carried vivid pictures, such as ‘A burnt child dreads the fire’, ‘When the cat is away, the mice will play, ‘People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.’

But as my collection grew larger, I realized that some proverbs contradicted each other. I was greatly puzzled and perturbed. How could these guides for human behaviour, these gems of human wisdom, not agree with each other? Which ones were right, which wrong?

In a fit of pique, I placed these troublesome pairs on opposite sides to each other, like foes in face-to-face confrontation on the battlefield: ‘Many cooks spoil the soup,’ and ‘More hands make light work’; ‘Slow and steady wins the race’ and ‘Time and tide wait for no man’; ‘Look before you leap’ and ‘Nothing venture, nothing gain’, etc. The contradictoriness annoyed me, as I wanted the reassurance of certainty. If proverbs, handed down the generations as the accreted wisdom of humankind, couldn’t provide that, what good were they?

I remember going to my teacher with my grievance, and she patiently explained that they were all good and right, and should be respected.

It would only be years later that I realized that the real source of annoyance was not the proverbs, but myself for failing to understand the complexity of a world where truth is never simple but always multidimensional, never black-or-white, but multicoloured, never in straight lines, but in bewildering zigzags.

---

About Vignettes...

A continuing flow of little, readable pieces that will constitute what I feel is an important 'legacy of values' to leave behind. Read more about Vignettes...