Entry for April 16, 2007 A Bird in the Hand's Worth Two in the Bush !

I have always been one to listen to the advice and counsels of others ........ and then go about doing pretty much whatever I wished to do in the first place using my own judgement ..... and even moreso the older I got or get !! In societies of yore when the words "elder" and "wisdom" were almost synonymous guys my age were consulted on a daily basis about both practical as well as philosophical issues to be solved within their community. Quite often these precious tidbits of knowledge and wisdom from the past have trickled on down to us in the form of proverbs and quotations.

Now a few years back I became legally old ..... therefore an elder !! So as many of you may have noticed I often quote myself in my blasts and I do this without even batting an eyelash and with the utmost humility. In fact , my blast today is " philosophized " from past experience of being waist deep in crappy "doodah" yet still hopeful as to the outcome. We all have opinions and views about life in general so why not formulate them and create our own "quotes" ? Who knows ? Your friends might find your gems of sagacity pertinent to their own outlooks on life and start citing you in their own blogs.

P.S. My thanks to a grade school student , Erika Aoyama , whose drawing I put in my entry title . I cannot find the site where I found it .

I took one proverb this morning and started to analyse it .... not only in English but also in a few other languages I know a bit about......... A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. In general it simply states that one is better off with something sure and tangible ... already in one's possession... than something vague and uncertain in the future. Does this apply to endangered species ? Are they better off in captivity than out in the wild with the poachers ?

Wee chick , " Jimmy ! Answer me ! "

Here in Québec ..... as throughout the French-speaking world...... the corresponding proverb ..... un "tiens!" vaut mieux que deux " tu l'auras!" ( one "hold this!" is worth more than two "you'll get it !'s ).... seems to insist that having something now is preferred to maybe having it in the future.

The Italians have formulated a beauty. " Meglio un uovo oggi che una gallina domani " . ( Better an egg today than a hen tomorrow ) . I wandered into an Italian chatroom the other night where they were discussing this very proverb and some of the interpretations were rather farfetched. So I added my two bits of deviltry stating that it was all about causal relationships..... the old absurd , assinine debate about which came first ... the chicken or the egg ? And then I gracefully disappeared from the screen. I wanted to go back to the site this morning but couldn't find it.

Fluff just handed me the Swedish version so here it is " En fågel i handen är bättre än tio i skogen " ( One bird in the hand is better than ten in the forest ). So this gives us a one to two ratio for the English and a one to ten ratio for the Swedes! Does this mean that traditionally Swedish society had much less confidence in the ability of its hunters to put food on the table than the English did ? Or are they simply insinuating that Swedish hunters are bad shots ?

Maybe the Spaniards show even less skill than the Swedes !! " Más vale páyaro en mano que ciento volando . ( A bird in the hand is worth more than one hundred on the wing ). And then again... just an afterthought.... why grab birds at all ? Are they not all God's wee creatures and should we not leave them alone to fly freely the open skies and nest in friendly trees ?

And that brings me back to my own Irish where we find a treasure chest of wisdom , " Is fearr breac sa láimh ná bradán sa linn ". ( A trout in the hand is better than a salmon in the pool! ) No birds here !! Here it is a question of size and as most of you know there is not much difference in weight between an Irish trout and our blessed salmon , the latter being only slightly bigger than the latter......... and even longer and weightier upon demand from any respectable " seanchaí " or Irish storyteller and fisherman !! And besides .... if the salmon is cornered in a pool then its being caught is a sure thing. ...... nothing left to chance !