Monday, February 16, 2009

A watched pot never boils

I can long remember my mother and even her mother using various "old sayings" on me. Yes, using them on me like laser beams to shoot down all of my child hood wanderings.

"It ain't over till the fat lady sings"
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it"
“Six to one, half dozen to another”

…and so on.

I would always ask them "Why are you saying that?!?" They would simply respond, "It's an old saying" as if that qualified as the justification of the statement.

Well as usual I was contemplating life, and the old saying "A watched pot never boils" crept into my mind. And I really do me CREEPY crept, because when ever my mother’s (or grandmother’s) voice comes into my head it is laced with a screeching Brooklyn accent. You guys that know my mom have all heard it. Now picture her mother...10 times worse! So why this old saying now, why was it in my head?

Here is my thought: We all catch ourselves wondering from time to time about the “next step”. When will it happen? What will it be? Will I be snowboarding in Canada next weekend or sitting on the beach in Florida? This week I caught myself staring at a pot of water waiting for it to boil (not literally). I realized that nothing good comes from pot staring.

1. You get fat, because you are just looking at a pot of water and not working out.
2. You get bored, and stir crazy.
3. You forget about the importance of all else that is going on.

SO in conclusion no pot staring! Just living life, loving my friends, family and everyday as it comes. Such a simple bit of life knowledge yet I still needed the friendly reminder. I guess I appreciate my mother’s voice terrorizing me to this day.

Please share the "Old Sayings” that you heard as a child. You can even add in the anecdotal accents that made you crazy or pictorial representations like below.

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Some others have decided to share their pot watching stories with us...

The image “http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/Suzanne57/watched-pot-blog.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Chairman Mao Visits A Factory

http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/CSS_tree/Domestic/watchedpot.lg.w.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3077/3198493523_9ced6aacfe_m.jpg

http://www.topfoto.co.uk/gallery/gypsies/images/prevs/hip0011238.jpg

http://www.deborahgoss.com/images/Watched%20Pot.jpg

7 comments:

Vickie said...

"Many Hands Make Light Work"

My sister is visiting and we're about to get on chores and projects that are always more palatable when you have someone to help you. . . If I have to face doing those jobs alone I might put them off or do them half heartedly. I might even distract myself with the internet and never get them done.

Your new pup is a fine, fine specimen, which brings up another old saying "That dog won't hunt" which I think is akin to "That horse won't trot" but I'm not sure I could use either correctly in context.

Brian, Steph, Jada, Kiva, and Judson said...

So, I have a problem with trying to hurry through just about everything...especially if it something that I don't particularly enjoy. Exs: math problems, budget, homemade cooking, etc. This has been going on since I was super little...I basically viewed everything as a race resulting in many many mispelled vocab words.
My mom began singing/saying to me "I like to take my time, I like to take my time and do it right, I like to take my time." She got it from Mr. Rogers :) But the tune is still lodged in my head and haunts me when I am rushing through many tasks.

Rhonda Goolsby said...

So I am a blog lurker...basically I don't have my own blog (because I'm not that interesting), but I love to take a peek at everyone who does have one. I can say that your blog spoke to me tonight...I keep wondering what's next, where will I be when I finish this degree, when will I meet my "Mr. Right," and so on. Thanks for the perspective. I needed it!

Jesse and Sarah Chupp said...

What's good for the goose is good for the gander!

Charla (SHar-la) said...

"This too shall pass."

Anonymous said...

And I just did the idiom list in my class. I took the 100 someone else had and boosted it up to 160 or 2 for every student.

I am surprised I was not outed as idiom factory spewing toxic verbal waste upon the planet.

My favorite family saying is "that's enough about the cars." Picture a mid-50's proper grandmother on the porch of a bungalow in El Paso listening to a 12 year old boy explain in excruciating detail the way you differentiate (eduspeak word) a 56 Chevy from a 57. The family meaning is you have talked too much.

Lisa said...

Misery loves company.......

I was reminded of this saying the other day when a sweet colleague wanted me to spend some time with her even though her mood was less than happy:)