Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/a-manner-of-speaking/5014688/
En route to Gloucester for a family wedding, relishing my ritual of magazine reading, I came across an article that posed the question: What was the best advice about life your mother gave you? Knowing from experience that it never hurts to have an entre in your pocket when you're about to face great numbers of family and friends, I decided to do an informal survey of my own.So, for my week in Massachusetts, visiting with friends from long ago, enjoying friends of friends and family of friends, I posed this question. These are some of my favorite responses:
Jean, mother of the bride: There's no sense buying small bananas.
Beck: Early ripe, early rotten.
Lynn: You'll do better in any relationship if you are willing to give more than 50%.
Beverly: Always take the hypotenuse.
Father Bullock: Mind your manners.
Welly Lai: Be more patient. Be more ninja.
Scott: Don't pierce anything.
Caren: The best gift you can give your children is to love their father.
Blake: Eat an elephant one bite at a time.
From posing the question I had great conversations with people I enjoy and learned some things about them and their childhoods. Some people avoided me at the wedding, but that's the price of a good question. It's interesting how the quotes and the people ...