Proverbs Can Make You Think & Smile

Photo by Lisa Yount on Unsplash

Proverbs are the children of experience. (An English Proverb)

Thank you all so much for playing my Rewrite the Proverbs Game. I hope you are having fun with it and with exercising your imagination. We all need to exercise and an imagination is one of the best things to exercise. That’s what we do when we read a novel or watch a movie. Personally I think reading the book gives you the most exercise, but playing a game of words is great too.

Tonight is the last episode of this particular Proverb game, but I’ll have to keep it in the game files for a reappearance someday. If I haven’t used up all the proverbs, that is. I really don’t think that would be possible since there seems to be a proverb for everything as is noted in the following quote.

“There is hardly a mistake which in the course of our lives we have committed but some proverb, had we known and attended to its lesson, might have saved us from it.”—Archbishop Trench

Many of you came up with great new endings for the proverbs in Sunday’s post. The “Not my circus…” had some great new endings. Lisa was more of a zoo girl. Rebecca said it wasn’t her circus but she just fed the animals. Amy said the band would play on. Lee made me smile with saying that clown was her brother, but Lucy claimed the clowns were some other family.

While those made me smile, the ones about “Every path has…” made me think about writing a book. Of course, everything right now is making me think about writing a book since that’s what I need to concentrate on for the next few months. Diana’s “Every path has a journey” had me thinking about the journey of typing that first word in Chapter 1 to the last word in whatever number that last chapter turns out to be. Lee and Judi were on the same tack with every path has a destination and every path leads somewhere. I do hope all those words I’m trying to summon up do lead somewhere.

Dana with her paths having twists and turns and Sharon with her path having surprises had me thinking about the need to have those unexpected twists in a story that might surprise a reader and keep her wanting to know what happens next. Hope’s path has its tolls to pay along the way and certainly there are some prices to pay while writing a book. A lot of hours at a computer. A lot of thinking to come up with those surprises and twists and turns. Connie  says there might be roots to stumble over and Megan is seeing some potholes. I sometimes stumble a little in writing a story and hit those potholes that have to be covered up later or edited out. Marti has speedbumps on her path. Could be there are times when it’s time to slow down and give the plot or characters a little more thought although I need to keep the words coming to meet my spring deadline on this one. So I need to keep a lookout for those offshoots along my story road that Amy talks about on her path. Maybe the most important thing though about writing a book is believing your idea has potential as Rebecca claims every path has.

So thank you all for helping me to think about this story journey I’m on and how I’m hoping to find all the necessary story ingredients along my story path.

For this last post in my rewriting the proverbs game, I’ve pulled out some different kinds of proverbs. Some might make you think. Some might make you smile.

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.

Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen.

If you are willing to admit faults, you have one less fault to admit.

Never insult an alligator until after you have crossed the river.

People who live in glass houses should change clothes in the basement.

Parents can tell but never teach, unless they practice what they preach.

Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception.

I never made a mistake in my life; at least, never one that I couldn’t explain away afterwards.

Here are the beginnings if you want to change the endings or you could do it in the opposite way and change the beginnings. I think that might be lots harder though.

The greatest mistake you can make in life is …

Free speech carries with it …

If you are willing to admit faults,…

Never insult an alligator until ….

People who live in glass houses …

Parents can tell but never teach…

Experience is that marvelous thing that …

I never forget a face…

I never made a mistake in my life…

Of course, if your brain is tired of all this imagination exercising, you can just pick out your favorites and keep the first listed ending. I think the one about not insulting the alligator is one that makes a lot of sense if you are wanting to cross the alligator’s river thus the alligator photo.

If you leave a comment you’ll get an entry in my book giveaway to have the chance to win an autographed copy of your choice of one of my books. I’ll pick the winner Saturday so get your comments in by midnight EST on Friday, January 31, 2025. To enter you must be 18 or older, but you can let your kids help think up answers.

And thanks again for making this game so much fun.