The 27 Proverbs
Monsters have monstrous ways.
While people sometimes have dark and wild sides, they shouldn’t let themselves be taken over by the terrible impulses that sometimes follow. People are capable of the brutality of dragons and giants, but succumbing to those behaviors is monstrous.
Not everything that falls from the sky is a star.
Falling stars sometimes wreak havoc upon the land but even worse things have descended upon this world from the stars. Sometimes, worse trouble than you’ve yet experienced will occur. Sometimes, unpredictable horrors replace predictable dangers.
Fertile lands for fertile times.
The vast wild plains support many wild creatures, but human culture depends upon cultured lands. While the plains are also fertile, this proverb reminds us that the benefits of culture and society depend upon safe and reliable food.
Sometimes darkness overcomes darkness.
The darkest of the natural resources, coal, is what keeps people alive during the darkest days of the brown and white seasons. This proverb reminds people that sometimes what you need to overcome a personal darkness isn’t to be found in the light, but is to be found in another place of darkness. Sometimes what saves us comes from unexpected places.
…the colors of the starshowers.
The colors of the starshowers match the natural colors in the world when they occur. During harvest time, the starshowers are red, in the growing season they’re green, and when the snows come, they’re white. Sometimes, things are as obvious as the colors of the starshowers. Not everything is complicated or mysterious.
Most falling stars never reach the ground.
Many tall tales begin with a claim of having found something that fell from the stars, but everyone knows that the starshowers themselves are beautiful and signs of natural goodness. Sometimes, good things are just good and that’s enough.
Giants fall hard.
Everyone can be brought low. But, those who project themselves to high places also fall from those high places, and when they do they are damaged more than they would have been had they merely stumbled from a place closer to the ground.
Stones break stones.
Sometimes we use words to express what something is like. We may say that someone is as strong as a horse or as quiet as an owl. But, the horse is stronger than the burly farmer and the owl is quieter than the patient hunter. The real thing is always more authentic and more real than what is being compared to it.
Roofs leak in the rain.
We feel safe when we aren’t in danger. On sunny days, we’re busy in the fields, and we are not thinking about the roof over the house, the tool shed, or the grain or coal bin. But when it rains, we find the leaks. And the leaks reveal the weaknesses in the roof.
No matter how deep the mine.
Even in the darkest spaces in the mines, as far away as possible from the sun and stars, light cannot be prevented. When a torch or candle can support a flame, that flame will provide light no matter how much darkness surrounds. Whatever light is, darkness cannot stop it.
A fire will stop itself.
Fire is powerful but requires fuel to continue. Sometimes a person is in a fiery disposition and the only way to rein that person in is to take away that person’s fuel. And, sometimes, the way to take away that person’s fuel is to let that person use it up.
Mine funny.
There are occasionally very serious circumstances where humor would typically be quite inappropriate but sometimes someone has just the right quip that manages to mix humor and seriousness (or humor and sadness) in a way that isn’t disrespectful. Other times, someone manages to tell a joke that, while being quite untimely, manages to still be funny. These and similar kinds of humor are known as “mine funny.” Often, when someone has this knack, they’ll be described as “mine funny” as an indication of that person’s uncommon skill.
Dave Paul 