I love adages. I use them all the time when I'm talking, and I try not to use them when I'm writing. The reason I love them so much is that they express perfectly -- in just a few words -- the point you are trying to get across. If I were to try to paraphrase an adage, it would probably take me at least 20 words to do it, as opposed to maybe 5 or 6 for the adage. I know that adages are overused and trite, but I just can't help myself.
I was cooking something the other day and waiting for it to get finished. My husband commented that I was figeting and pacing, and why don't I just sit down and wait. I agreed and said to him "well, a watched pot never boils." To which he said "huh?" I couldn't believe he had never heard that expression. So then I had to try to explain it, but such explanations never really capture the essence of an adage.
I'm writing about adages today because one of them popped into my head last night -- "when one door closes, another one opens." For me, a door closed when my mother died about six weeks ago. I stopped working. I hardly heard from any clients, and even though I wouldn't have been able to work with them anyway, I sort of wondered why none of them were calling. I worried that perhaps two doors were closing at the same time. But in the past week, five of my regular clients have called with work for me to do, and several other new potential clients have gotten in touch. So another door has opened and I am grateful.
I just can't think of a better way to express it. And that's why adages are an ingrained part of my vocabulary and burned into my brain.
Hello Deborah, I recently subscribed to your colum and I have been receiving some of your daily write ups. It has been very motivating indeed. I hope very soon you and I will be able to do business. I have a proposal coming up soon, I will need your help. Now about adages, it's a very important way of expressing yourself. I hope you also use it in writing, maybe not in proposal writings, but in other writings. It one way of knowing a great writers.
once more, I really enjoys reading your writes up.
Hi Deborah, I had to laugh when I saw that you were thinking of the open door adage. I recently worked with a retired RAF radar outfitter from Scotland who had loads of hillarious adages and miscellaneous sayings. He had so many of them I would write them in my quote book. One of my favourites was "When one door shuts, another on slams closed on your fingers".
Anyways, good to see that this blog exists as I intend on shifting career gears to work part-time as a information systems consultant.
-Mike
Hi, Deborah,
I'm so sorry about your loss; my mom is still with me at age 78; she has lived with my family for the past 10 years. There are times she is a pain, but it will be a big loss when she is gone. ;o)
I was interested in your talk about adages. There's one adage (or perhaps it's an analogy) that I use often when talking with internal bid response teams at my position (working as a project manager for a corporation's bid response team). You know how someone's always wanting to stretch the agreed-upon timeline, saying, "Oh, you don't need that much time for that" or "Why can't I still add large sections of information the day before print/bind day?"
I have often said in response, "At some point, you have to stop adding ingredients and start baking the cake."
There are additions to that analogy: "Sorry, the cake is already in the oven and it's half-baked already. I'm not going to add more ingredients now." Or "If you want this cake ready in time for the party, I have to put it into the oven this afternoon. There's no time to be selecting a whole new recipe at this stage." Or even, "Yes, I know it seems like we still have plenty of time to bake this cake for you. But I have other cakes I'm baking too, and I can't stay up all night and all weekend, baking for you."
Somehow, it seems to help folks understand. (Or maybe it just makes me feel better.)
;o)
- Carolyn B.