Melted Fat
“A szép almákban is vannak savanyuk,” my grandmother would intone.
Roughly translated it means “There can be sour spots hidden in nice looking apples.” In other words, just because someone is good looking doesn’t mean they can’t be rotten inside. Which I am totally down with.
But there were times when she would come out with stuff that left me scratching my head. “Akinek vaj van a fején ne menjen a napra.” A person with butter on their head shouldn’t go out into the sun. Pardon my French…but WTF is that supposed to mean? Or, “Fejétől bűzlik a hal.” There is a fish stink coming from your head. Or, “Nem repül a sült galamb a szádba.” A fried pigeon won’t fly into your mouth. I’m sure that each of these proverbs was meant to succinctly sum up some sort of nugget of wisdom, but they may have lost something in the translation.
Every society has its own proverbs, or adages, which they believe are truths based on common sense. Like, fences make good neighbours. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Or, too many cooks spoil the broth. Some ring with truths which we aspire to, but are they in fact truths?
“You alvays haf to tell the truth,” my Mom used to tell me as a child.
That sounds like a good idea, but is it? I’m one of those people who used to have difficult times in life because I had a tendency to tell the truth a little too often. “That hair cut is awful. Can you sue?” “Those shoes are the ugliest things I’ve ever seen.” “Hey, I heard you were having an affair…” Statements which didn’t exactly put me into the person’s good books. Experience has taught me that always telling the truth is actually a bad idea.
Most people don’t really want to know the truth; that’s why mankind invented the little white lie. Even my mother had issues with my honesty. “Do you always have to say what you really think?” she asked after I referred to her new duvet as “old lady chic.”
“What happened to honesty is the best policy?” (By the way, people also don’t like you to throw their words back at them. Apparently it’s very irritating.)
Our society is filled to the rim with misnomers, contradictions, and incongruities. Once we find that tall, dark, handsome man, or the princess bride, we will live happily ever after. Like shit. Fifty percent of all first marriages end in divorce, 67% of the second, and almost three quarters of all people who marry for the third time divorce. Who in their right mind would go through that whole business three times, is my question. Yet as parents when we feel our kids are at the right age we begin to push them towards marriage. Or tell our friends to get right back on that horse. It’s like riding a bike…
Lately, any time I read or hear anything about economics it is always about growth. Growth is a must for the industry. We need more people. More workers. More immigrants. More factories. More output. Without growth we are doomed. I call bullshit on that. Just because “they” say it, it doesn’t mean it is true. We happen to live on a small planet which is getting smaller every day. We do not have infinite resources, or for that matter, an infinite amount of room. The way I see it is that more people means more pressure on an already taxed environment. We do not need a growing economy. We need a stable and balanced one. Because if we want the grass to always remain greener on the other side, we need to ensure that the Earth can continue growing the stuff.
A barking dog doesn’t bite. Loose lips sink ships. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. We are all born equal. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Don’t let boys play with dolls – it will make them gay. A university degree will guarantee a good job. Having sex burns more calories than going for a run. You can never be too rich, or too thin. Everything happens for a reason. And if you believe all that I have a bridge to sell you.
Or as my grandmother used to say…“Gyermëk, részëg, bolond mondják az igazat.” Children, drunks, and crazy people tell the truth. I’ll leave it up to you to decide which one I am.
Image Credit
“Melted Fat” by Christi Nielsen. flickr.com. Some rights reserved.
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Hi Gab,
maybe I can give you some hints – sorry if my English isn’t that good.
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It means “when you’re vulnerable you shouldn’t attack others”.
An english proverb with the same meaning is “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”
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It’s a common central European proverb:
“The fish starts stinking from the head” which means problems (stink) in every organisation/company are originated by the leaders (=head). Often used for corrupt political parties.
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Or, “Nem repül a sült galamb a szádba.”
A fried pigeon won’t fly into your mouth.
That’s very old (medieval) European stuff. “Fried pigeons flying in your mouth” is the symbol for “having food without any effort” or other kinds of careless life. The hungarian proverb tells you not to expect a life without effort, so you should start working ans stop dreaming..
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There’s also a proverb for the truth dilemma, in German it’s “Die Wahrheit ein zweischneidig’ Schwert”
= “The truth is a double-edged sword” (=ou can cut yourself while using it=.
Cheers, Barbara