New is the Old Repackaged

By choice, I’m writing about something besides COVID or other unsettling news. I’m grateful to be able to write again, so some jarring effects that freeze creative thought are diminishing—or we’re adjusting to chaos.

Oxymorons are fascinating word combinations. (The plural is oxymora)—different ways of saying something by linking contradictory or opposite words together. They jar us to trigger new understanding, like a gentle slap in the face makes us freshly consider what is really being said.

Here are some favorites: “Same difference”, “perfect mess”, “clearly misunderstood”, “cruel kindness”, “living dead”,  fine mess”, “accurate estimate”, “balding hair”, “found missing”, “jumbo shrimp”. “deafening silence”, “open secret”,  “controlled  chaos”, “old news”, “small giant”, “honest thief”,  and “wise fool”.

“Wise fool” is also a paradox (the plural is paradoxes), figures of speech where a statement seems contradictory or opposes common sense but may still be true. Another is, “less is more.” I love the pithy wisdom of the Arabic adage, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Some paradoxical statements come via famous authors. George Bernard Shaw wrote, “What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young.” Oscar Wilde said, “I can resist anything but temptation.” When ideas are expressed well,  we consider the thought longer.

These may not be oxymora or true paradoxes, but Bible sayings also make us stop and think, like Matt. 9:16 NIV, “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse.”

And Haggai 1:6 (NIV), “You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough… You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” (Not a good idea in any time or culture, especially now.

Thoughts form words. Words spark creativity and action. I love fresh ways of viewing and saying things— breaking out of the stale sameness box.

What are oxymora or paradoxical statements you enjoy? These days, we need and value those more than ever.