#48: Aphorisms

 

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)

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).