While there are drawbacks to having lived five and a half decades, there are also blessings. The drawbacks would include chattering joints, weak eyes and a body a bit wider than the one to which I was accustomed.

The biggest benefit is, of course, that I am still alive. One of the other rewards is that I now am able to distinguish between wisdom and dog dookie. There are things adults have told me and things I’ve told children that definitely fall into the dookie category.

For example, I never once crossed my eyes after my mother told me my face would get stuck that way. I now know that it’s not true. Otherwise, my brother would be an insurance salesman with crossed eyes and a huge, protruding tongue. I also learned that, “We’ll think about that tomorrow,” means, “We are going to hope that by tomorrow you have forgotten all about that.”

Some of the momisms I have heard, however, have a simple and beautiful truth to them. These are the ones that I hope to always remember, and hope my children remember as well.

The golden rule of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you was the first great truth I learned from adults. For quite some time, I honestly believed that it was the only truth they had to teach, since the other, more memorable momisms involved things like being struck blind.

Time passed, though. And, amazingly enough, as I aged my elders became wiser. The same transformation is beginning (just barely beginning) to happen with my own children. I sometimes envision living long enough to have my children climb to the mountaintop and ask me to share the wisdom that life has taught me. The wonderful thing is, in my vision, they listen.

What would I tell them?

Your face won’t get stuck that way, and sucking your thumb will not give you buck teeth.

No matter what you do in life, or where you go, you will never encounter a coach in any sport that you agree with 100 percent of the time.

If you have to ask if something makes your hips look too big, it does.

When you have your own children, don’t research raising them — find the answers in your heart.

No one really wants to be around when another adult belches, farts or spits.

Drunk people aren’t cool, they’re just drunk.

There is nothing to be gained by trying to be right all of the time.

There is nothing to be gained by allowing yourself to be wrong all of the time.

Absolutely no one has a permanent record.

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Terry Murry can be reached at (541) 966-0810 or at tmurry@eastoregonian.com.