Advent 17: Accommodation

Half a loaf is better than none.

“Something is better than nothing, even if it is less than one wanted. For example, he had asked for a new trumpet but got a used one – oh well, half a loaf is better than none. This expression, often shortened, was already a proverb in 1546 (John Heywood’s Glossary) where it was explicitly put: “For better is half a loaf than no bread.” (Free Dictionary)

A lot depends on who has the half loaf. Am I telling someone else who ought to have a whole loaf that she should feel content with just half? Or am I looking at the slices of bread in my hands and saying, yes, this is plenty, I don’t need a whole loaf.

I think we more readily assign this proverb to the fortunes or misfortunes of others, as in “you should be happy you have half a loaf” because our inclination actually is to provide you with no loaf.

This was the hum in my head tonight riding along on the Street Angels outreach bus, looking for people who needed to come in out of the cold. There was a half a loaf waiting for them and they should feel lucky. Or so the saying goes.