Meridian Magazine : : Print

Turning Old Clichés into New Maxims:
Conclusion
By Richard Eyre

Note: This column appears every two weeks … with an old cliché replaced by a new maxim each time. Click here to read the full introductory column. Click here to go to the Cliché archives.

As I look back over these last twenty-six new columns and the twenty-six new maxims we have created, it occurs to me that they all relate in some way to prioritizing and balance. They also seem to embody the following four principles:

Honor relationships over achievements
Select quality over quantity
Value “choose-to-dos” over “have-to-dos”
Believe in spontaneity as much as structure

It’s not that achievements, quantity, have-to-dos and structure are unimportant. It’s just that they get too much attention in our competitive, list-oriented, materialistic world. Each of the new maxims, in its own way, says something about balancing life by moving quality, spontaneity, relationships, and choose-to-dos up into parity and perhaps ahead of their counterparts.

May we internalize these principles. May we exercise and implement the new maxims. May we enjoy life more and live it more fully.

—Richard Eyre