Singers and Storytellers Page: 69
v, 298 p. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this book.
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Don't Look Back
GEORGE D. HENDRICKS
A MULTITUDE of motifs in proverbs, folk sayings, folk beliefs,
and folktales warn us against looking back. Some few tell us
that we should look back. As expressions of the folk, these
ideas involve basic psychological problems and indicate serious
and usually valid philosophical outlooks upon life.
There are, of course, two ways to look back: one is in a
physical or directional sense, involving space; the other is
chronological, involving time. In both of these senses there are
dangers to be avoided and values to be sought; these dangers
and values may be internal or external.
Don't cry over spilled milk. Wipe the slate clean and start
from scratch. Bury the hatchet. Let sleeping dogs lie. Let
bygones be bygones. Don't give it a second thought. That's
water under the bridge. Burn your bridges behind you. Such
are the sayings everybody knows. Whoever follows the dictates
of these sayings believes that somehow things will turn out
all right in spite of what has gone before. He is, in this sense,
essentially a man of faith.
Even nursery rhymes imply the same disregard for troubles
of the past or present, the same confidence in the future:
Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep
And can't tell where to find them.
Leave them alone and they'll come home
Wagging their tails behind them.69
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Singers and Storytellers (Book)
Collection of popular folklore of Texas, including personal anecdotes about storytellers and singers, as well as folk songs, myths, and ghost stories. The index begins on page 295.
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Boatright, Mody C. Singers and Storytellers, book, 1961; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc67655/m1/75/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Press.