Dear LPG,  

I am by no means very young, but I am one of the very fortunate people to be well into my seventies and reminded on a daily basis that I am still a child.  My mum is well into her nineties but still able to make me feel really small when she is ready.   Her Jamaican heritage cannot be mistaken because she so often calls upon those really old adages that only people of her age and ethnicity rely on when offering the wisdom of a mum whose mind is as sharp as ever.   

One of her gifts is that of always finding a well-worn quotation or saying to pull out of the bag to add insult to injury when someone needs putting in their place and, even though I have been hearing them for seventy odd years, when they hit the hardest, they still have an effect that forces the person they are aimed at to feel well and truly cut down to size morally. (…especially if it is me!) 

Some years ago I was told a secret that I promised never to repeat but at a recent family event, it sort-of slipped out, rocking the hull of our family boat just a little more than needed (although the ripples caused quickly subsided). 

During a private word with my mum after the event she came up with one of those age-old sayings that put everything into perspective and I wonder if you have ever heard this one.   

It starts with a fact, ‘Four things come not back’ and the four things referred to are: -  
The spoken word 
The sped arrow (or thrown stone) 
The past life (or time past/gone) 
The neglected opportunity 

There is a lot of wisdom in the words and hearing them again got me wondering about who said them first.   

Such a question will nearly always have an answer to be found on the internet, and I got looking.  Google tells that these telling and very deep words originated in Arabia somewhere a very long time ago but I would argue that they still ring true and, said at the right time, it can bring anyone down to size.    

Whatever its origins, it has been penned and uttered many a time in my life and just goes to show how the right placing of a few words can seriously hit home. 

Many will say that the words are timeless and cannot be improved on but, in the light of the many electronic messages that are used as evidence in political spheres these days, and after receiving a relatively innocent WhatsApp message that was deleted nearly as quickly as it was sent (though not quickly enough for me to miss it), I feel that a fifth stanza should be added: - The sent electronic message. 

EC, Forest Hill 

 

EC shares some of what the internet has to say on the subject of this quotation… 

 

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