The rules of life often came to me as a child in homespun adages plucked from the Bible or Ben Franklin. I was reared on phrases that could encourage or reprimand—time-honored words that held a weightiness greater than individual beliefs. They bore the wisdom of history and sages. “Still waters run deep.” My mother would affirm in defense of my father’s taciturn manner. “Every cloud has a silver lining,” I’d be reassured in times of disappointment. Just as quick on the tongue