#WisdomWednesday

I know someone who has a good reputation in his industry. He's well-known by many and because of his years of experience in the industry he is in, the reputation he has is one that has him on the board of one organization and he gets sent many gifts at Christmastime and many people/companies give him special accommodations. One might look at this reputation he has and equate it to a good character. And one would be wrong.

Character and reputation are not the same. This man's character is lacking in kindness, grace, diversity, equality, and general humanity. He has crafted a reputation based on lies - things that he most likely wishes were true about himself and knows are not. See, he has a chance to improve his character - to perhaps bring it into alignment with his reputation but his lack of character is seen even more clearly in the fact that he doesn't want to improve, he believes people should adjust to him and cater to him.

When it comes to the end of his life reputation won't keep him company, only character will. I find that to be incredibly sad. When I come to the end of my life I don't want a reputation just character.

Call it a Day

The literal use of this phrase hails from 1838 when the phrase originally was "call it half a day" to mean leaving work early. (source) The modern use of the phrase is to indicate ending something due to false sense of accomplishment.

More bang for your buck

This phrase was used a lot in 1953 but an earlier citation puts it at 1940 in a Metals and Plastics Publications advertisement. Read about it here . The phrase means you get more for your money.

Butter someone up

There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.

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