You really should look a gift horse in the mouth
March 7, 2012
I grinned when PiC questioned that truism, saying, shouldn’t you actually check to see if you’re getting a bad horse? What if it’s sickly?
No idea where that came from but I loved it.
Come to think of it, there are other reasons you should question gifted horses. Especially wooden ones.
Now, gifts freely given, of an open heart with no malice, that is a whole other thing.
I’ve been discovering that I’ve been crap with analogies, aphorisms, or metaphors. They start out so well (-meaning), then end up broken in a ditch, making funny noises.
It’s been a weird week. I can’t wait for a good long break. Is anyone else in dire need of a mental health refresh?
Also, this review of RedFarm in NY has me craving dumplings ten ways to Sunday.
File under: thoughts and things.
Shamefully, I just learned what that saying means about a year or so ago. I went to visit my mother a couple weeks ago and one of her neighbors had some toys he wanted to “give” her for a few bucks. My niece and nephews didn’t need anything, but she wanted to help her neighbor out. She gave him the money he asked for and accepted the toys. There was one toy that I was particularly suspicious of, a teddy bear. I was like, “What if that thing has bed bugs?” She threw it out immediately. My mom could’ve just given her neighbor the money and refused the “gifts.”
When my mother’s aunt met my father for the first time, she aggressively checked his teeth and said, “Okay, I guess.”
@Shawanda: I suppose your mom was doing him more than one kindness in paying him for the things so that it didn’t seem like charity, but I would have quietly cleaned and moved those things on to other places as well.
@B: HAH! Aw….