Honest Assessments
It is a pity that so many trees are sacrificed to feed our insatiable appetite for the printed page when, often, a few short, succinct spoken words could serve us just as well. Here’s an example of one such proverb:
“The stone and the egg do not sleep in the same bed.”
Yes, I know, this sounds like common sense, but you would be surprised. There have been volumes upon volumes of books written to explain how to engage in relationships, knowing the right person to fall in love with, navigating the treacherous waters of dating, etc. I have several friends who are addicted to a genre of publishing known as “Self-Help” books. Out of curiosity I’ve perused a few pages of these manuscripts and what I have I found is that they often repeat things that our parents and grandparents told us when we were “too young” and “too smart” to listen and appreciate their sage advice. I’ve found that much of the ancient wisdom that was contained in short, simple sentences has been expanded upon with illustrations added, beautiful binding selected and published by mega-publishing houses for profit.
I am in no way casting disparaging eyes on these works or those involved in the industry of publishing; to the contrary, I know that everyone and everything has its’ place, but in a society where no one seems to have “time” doesn’t it make sense that we would want to simplify our lives a bit?
Why read a 400 page manuscript when reflecting on a few simple words could, potentially, guide you towards the same understanding?
I used to think of the above proverb as only related to relationships we have with others. I’ve now tend to think it is possible that the words can relate to the internal relationship we possess with ourselves, our own internal desire for psychological and spiritual maturity. After all, hasn’t it been said that the greatest battle a person will ever wage is the internal struggle against one’s self; those dual aspects of our personalities (egg and stone) that we are, forever, challenged to make choices between?
“Dooni dooni kononi bè nyaga da.”
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