It's kind of a running joke between a couple of my co-workers and me that I can easily lapse into talking in non-stop old adages. Sometimes I feel a bit like the Bewitched TV series. I confess, whenever I watched that show, I was always most excited when Samantha had to call Dr. Bombay ("Calling Dr. Bombay, Calling Dr. Bombay, come right away!") because then I knew that I was going to be delighted by a series of silly rhymes and phrases full of iambic pentameter. This might have been an early sign of what would become my ongoing fascination with words. (I know, I know, what a weirdo I am!)

Anyway, if I don't really watch myself, old sayings will fly out of my mouth continually. Something involving making a silk purse out of a sow's ear is one of my favorites. Measure twice, cut once. A stitch in time saves nine. Kill two birds with one stone. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in awhile. (Sometimes I replace "squirrel" with "sow" in that one ... and just when I typed that, I tped "accord" rather than "acorn" ... which could maybe be Honda's next big ad campaign!) When life gives you lemons, make lemondae.

Silly though they may sound, there is a lot of truth in these things. My favorite old saying, though? You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. I love that because it is such a basic rule of life. I am trying to teach my son to think of that in all that he does. The world would be far better if we all could do that all the time.

I recently read the latest in the last few years' string of parable-based business books. This one is called "Revved!" or something like that. Its basic point is the old honey and vinegar thing. However, it really stresses that, even though you may originally find yourself having to stretch a bit to use honey rather than vinegar, over time it will make your life so much more enjoyable, fulfilling and productive because of the better ways in which people will respond to you. Honey will become your nature and you will never want to go back to vinegar.

The obvious religious implication to the way that the Holy Spirit takes over the transformed life aside, I really believe there is something to that old honey and vinegar thing. I just hope I can live it out at all times!