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| Be careful with fears — they like to steal dreams |
Sugar packets in Spain usually come with an aphorism; here
are two:
Ten cuidado con los miedos
Les encanta robar sueños
(be careful with fears — they like to steal dreams)
And
Quien te lastima hace fuerte,
Quien te critica te hace importante,…
(Those who shame you make you strong, those who criticise
you make you important…)
Of these I prefer the first, and in fact have it as a
reminder on my desk. The second seems more questionable to me, though perhaps
it is partly self-fulfilling — if you believe hard experiences make you
stronger they are more likely to.
The power of aphorisms
Many of the aphorisms, like these, encourage strength in
adversity. But whatever the advice, I find it a charming custom — it implies
coffee time gives a moment to take stock and energise the spirit as well as the
body. Aphorisms, according to literature professor Walter Ong and others, were
characteristic of oral cultures since they encapsulated the maximum amount of
wisdom in an easily memorisable, concentrated form. They are ‘mnemonically-tooled
grooves’, in Ong’s striking phrase.
My sugar packet suggestions
So what would I put on a packet? I would keep the aphorisms, but add
some packets with hard data which might surprise some — sourced of course. Here are my top three sugar
packet suggestions:
In the last 20 years, the proportion of the world population
living in extreme poverty has almost halved. (The World Bank and the United
Nations, via Factfulness by Hans Rosling).
Average life expectancy in the world today is 72.81 years.
It has risen every year since at least 1950 and the UN expect it to be almost
80 by 2100. (The United Nations)
and one for those seeking to increase equal opportunities in
the UK:
In 2020, the percentage of state school pupils getting a place in UK higher education was: Chinese 71.7; Asian 53.1; Black 47.5; Mixed 39; White 32.6. (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service)
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| Don't do to others what you wouldn't like done to you |
The Ong quotation comes from Orality and Literacy, p. 35. (second
edition 2002 Routledge).