Flotsam and Jetsam

Post 129 Auntie Ivy's favourite quote

Auntie Ivy was a distant lady relative whose elegance, extensive experience and exemplary language skills are much to be admired. She was a seasoned traveller having stayed in the UK, Greece and Cyprus from the 1950s to 1980s. When I met her in Malaysia in the late 1990s, she was already 85 years old.

In one of our conversations, she mentioned the phrase’ flotsam and jetsam’ which means a collection of broken unwanted things lying about in an untidy way. It can also mean people who are without homes or work, and who move helplessly through life. It is also used figuratively in non-nautical contexts to means odds and ends, bits and pieces. She said that it was good riddance that miscellaneous things or someone unpleasant was out of our life.

My family members loved to talk to her because there was so much to learn from her.Besides she was also very witty and affable. She was old yet very wise in many ways. Shakespeare wrote in King Lear that “As you are old and reverend, you should be wise." She qualified for both. Indeed it is great to grow old gracefully.

Our burden will be lightened when trivial things are jettisoned. – Quote by Ho Nee Yong

31 January 2012