WORDS OF WISDOM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

When I was awake much of the night trying to overcome a series of tinnitus fits, I tried to keep my brain semi-occupied by making mental lists--thinking this would take my mind off the maddening noise inside my head. I was stellar with states and capitals and naming the 96 people in my high school graduating class, but I didn’t so well with the presidents of the United States, and I did even worse with books of the Bible.

When I didn’t get past the first five books of the Old Testament, I switched to listing the Ten Commandments:

“Thou shalt not kill.”
“Thou shalt not steal.”
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.”
“Thou shalt not bear false witnesses.”
“Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.”
“Thou shalt not take the name of thy Lord in vain.”
“Always be a good little girl.”

Ooops! That last one was a demand-ment from Mama Bore, which got me to thinking about all the pearls of wisdom she dished out to me when she was trying to raise me to be a good person. Surely there were at least ten more:

“Four feet on the floor!” (referring to the dinner chairs that I tended to rock back and ruin)
“Just STAY AWAY from him!” (referring to Big Brother Beans)
“Hang up your clothes!” (she finally gave up on this one)
“Go out and play!” (in other words: “Scram!”)
“Be sure to thank ______.” (fill in the blank with a hostess or sponsor’s name. We didn’t want to appear ungrateful now, did we?)
“Close your mouth!” (it had the tendency to hang open while I was thinking of something brilliant to say.)
“Watch out for quiet boys.” (You never knew what they were thinking. You always knew where you stood with the loudmouths.)
“Did you strike any matches?” ( a good question to ask as we were leaving the house, I suppose, but Beans was the pyromaniac, not I.)
“Did you wash your hands?” (she STILL hounds me with this one)
“Do unto others!” (okay, so she borrowed that one from the Bible.)

I suppose every mother of every family has her little gems of advice for her children. What was the best one you ever received?