The story behind the words

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This article was published 02/04/2018 (2738 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Local writer Glenn Morison is putting his best foot forward with a new book about every day idioms.

The Wolseley resident has long been intrigued by the sayings and phrases that we use without a second though in our daily lives. Having worked in pastoral ministry, Morison said he noticed that peoples’ spirituality was often expressed through slogans and sayings.

“At their best they’re great—you can put thinking into a phrase you say to yourself,” Morison said. “If you’re prone to panicking you say ‘easy does it,’ and ‘good things come to those who wait.’ So I’ve seen these phrases work well and can see why they would choose that over some 2,000-year-old holy text.

“But anytime you simplify something, you lose nuance… and I’ve heard people say a phrase they heard and they should think that way, but they don’t and they repeat it, hoping to believe it, and that didn’t serve them well.”

Morison put his fascinations into a book titled The Things We Say: Contemplative Reflections, in which he explores 600 sayings that he’s come across in his life and research.

“There are some really interesting things you’d never think of, like ‘put your best foot forward.’ It should be ‘put your better foot forward,’” Morison explained. “There are so many quotes attributed to Einstein and it’s almost for sure he didn’t say them.”

The project began out of sheer interest and curiosity for Morison, who eventually decided to pair the sayings he studied with accompanying segments of scripture, in the hopes that readers will take some meaning out of the work he’s done.

“It’s just some discussion that would not try to resolve anything but just say this is what they point to—maybe they have the same common problem, or maybe not. It’s more of a dialogue.”

After approaching a few publishers, Morison ultimately decided to self-publish.

Rather than sell The Things We Say, Morison is asking for donations for the Old Grace Housing Co-op, which is still under construction but is expected to open to tenants soon.

“There’s 12 units which are for people of low income and we had to raise the money for their share,” Morison said. He will be living in the co-op as well, and he says the facility fits in with his philosophy.

“We live in a world in which people go to great lengths to live in gated communities to make sure they’re not around poor people,” he said. “To use an expression, it’s a ‘not in my backyard’ attitude. To me, the co-op is the exact opposite, and that’s saying, yes please, in my yard.”