Grandma says: The hurrier you go the behinder you get
Grandma Pickett was a voracious reader. She would often impart wise sayings to us. You know the kind I mean. There were those which one can easily find on a cross stitch that has been framed and is hanging somewhere in a grandmother’s house or, if one is lucky, is now hanging in your house. The ones that I have hanging in my house did not come from grandmother. Of all her many talents, I do not recall that cross stitching was one. The ones that I have did come from grandmothers. They were just not my grandmother.
Since my memory bank has a habit of changing or deleting details, often I am not sure whether Grandmother Pickett gave credit to the author of the catchy reminders or whether she just threw them out as we went about our day. I am certain that she often, if not always, knew the origin of the quote. Be that as it may, one of her favorite reminders was “The hurrier you go, the behinder you get.” This is, of course, a quote which is credited to the White Rabbit in the 1865 story which has been read and reread by children and adults in many countries, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland). Charles Ludwidge Dodgson wrote this story under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It would seem that many of grandmothers favorite reminders had first been penned by Mr. Dodgson. It seems long before Grandma Pickett became a school teacher, the characters in Mr. Dodgson’s story had been educating more than just children as Alice inhabited the fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures including the rabbit.
It seems that Grandmother and the rabbit both thought that if my motor, which seems to have only two speeds – stop and very fast, could be reset to moderate speed I might make fewer mistakes, have fewer accidents and get more done. Certainly I could not then and cannot now argue with this wise woman or the rabbit. It seems my mid-western idea of speed is 75 on a narrow two lane, bi-direction highway. (I was recently in Texas and to my horror, that was indeed the case.) My head, back, arms, and legs are tattooed with the marks of the top of short basement door frame in my former house, corners of cabinets, edges of car doors, counters in door or in stores which would deposit their contents on the floor, or anything else which jumped out to deliberately block my important mission which is being timed by the Gods. On the farm where I was doing chores spilled pails of milk, dropped and broken eggs, and rows which were half weeded attested to the arrogance of the objects which refused to securely travel at the same rate and to stay balanced.
Just yesterday I was rushing to put away groceries and the sharp corner of my counter top sprang forth to attack my back. Imagine! Well, I certainly told it off in language which would have earned me another stern lecture from Grandmother Pickett. Of course, I did not then nor would I now have the courage to remind her that she should have been lecturing the counter top! (I was not stupid.)
Still, every time I exceed the speed limit which would be consistent with accomplishing a task in a safe, efficient manner, I hear Grandmother Pickett saying, “The hurrier you go, the behinder you get.”
Written December 5, 2016
Grandma Pickett was a voracious reader. She would often impart wise sayings to us. You know the kind I mean. There were those which one can easily find on a cross stitch that has been framed and is hanging somewhere in a grandmother’s house or, if one is lucky, is now hanging in your house. The ones that I have hanging in my house did not come from grandmother. Of all her many talents, I do not recall that cross stitching was one. The ones that I have did come from grandmothers. They were just not my grandmother.
Since my memory bank has a habit of changing or deleting details, often I am not sure whether Grandmother Pickett gave credit to the author of the catchy reminders or whether she just threw them out as we went about our day. I am certain that she often, if not always, knew the origin of the quote. Be that as it may, one of her favorite reminders was “The hurrier you go, the behinder you get.” This is, of course, a quote which is credited to the White Rabbit in the 1865 story which has been read and reread by children and adults in many countries, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland). Charles Ludwidge Dodgson wrote this story under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It would seem that many of grandmothers favorite reminders had first been penned by Mr. Dodgson. It seems long before Grandma Pickett became a school teacher, the characters in Mr. Dodgson’s story had been educating more than just children as Alice inhabited the fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures including the rabbit.
It seems that Grandmother and the rabbit both thought that if my motor, which seems to have only two speeds – stop and very fast, could be reset to moderate speed I might make fewer mistakes, have fewer accidents and get more done. Certainly I could not then and cannot now argue with this wise woman or the rabbit. It seems my mid-western idea of speed is 75 on a narrow two lane, bi-direction highway. (I was recently in Texas and to my horror, that was indeed the case.) My head, back, arms, and legs are tattooed with the marks of the top of short basement door frame in my former house, corners of cabinets, edges of car doors, counters in door or in stores which would deposit their contents on the floor, or anything else which jumped out to deliberately block my important mission which is being timed by the Gods. On the farm where I was doing chores spilled pails of milk, dropped and broken eggs, and rows which were half weeded attested to the arrogance of the objects which refused to securely travel at the same rate and to stay balanced.
Just yesterday I was rushing to put away groceries and the sharp corner of my counter top sprang forth to attack my back. Imagine! Well, I certainly told it off in language which would have earned me another stern lecture from Grandmother Pickett. Of course, I did not then nor would I now have the courage to remind her that she should have been lecturing the counter top! (I was not stupid.)
Still, every time I exceed the speed limit which would be consistent with accomplishing a task in a safe, efficient manner, I hear Grandmother Pickett saying, “The hurrier you go, the behinder you get.”
Written December 5, 2016
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