Turn Over a New Leaf

Marcia Norwood
America's STORYTELLER
Telling Untold Stories in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking


Turn Over A New Leaf

Idiom  (Combination of words with a figurative meaning)

To begin again, fresh
To start behaving in a better or different way

Image from Graphics Fairy:  http://thegraphicsfairy.com/

  The term dates to the 1500s, and actually refers to turning the page of a book.  It implies that someone turns over the previous page with bad behavior, and starts anew on a fresh page.
 

Image from Graphics Fairy:  http://thegraphicsfairy.com/

Recidivism

The act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after experiencing negative consequences of the behavior, or have been treated or trained to STOP that behavior.  Also used to refer to the percentage of former prisoners who are rearrested for a similar offense.  
  

Image from Graphics Fairy:  http://thegraphicsfairy.com/ 

Irish writer and poet, Oscar Wilde,  was accused of recidivism after promising to change his bad behavior.  He once said that he earnestly intended to turn over a new leaf, but he hadn't gotten to the bottom of the page yet.  It is said that Wilde assured his critic that he would make good on his promise.  


Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde
(October 16, 1854 - November 30, 1900)

Photograph taken in 1882 by Napoleon Sarony 

Oscar Wilde became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s.  He is remembered for his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays, and the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death.  He was forty-six years old and destitute when he died in Paris. 

His masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), was  on stage in London at the height of his fame and success, when Wilde prosecuted the Marquess of Queensberry (the father of Wilde's lover) for libel.  Evidence in the trial uncovered evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges, however, it led to his own conviction and imprisonment for gross indecency.  He was convicted and imprisoned for two years of hard labor.  While in prison in 1897, he wrote De Profundis, (Latin: "from the depths" from Psalm 130) a long letter which talks about his spiritual journey through his trials.


Would you like to turn over a new leaf...
       begin again...
              start fresh...
                   start behaving in a better, different way?

You would?

Me, too! 

I've imagined a place where we could all meet and share stories.   

 

  Therefore if any man be in Christ,

he is a new creature:

old things are passed away;

behold, all things are become new.

The Holy Bible

2 Corinthians 5:17

Thanks for stopping by!

Come again, and bring a friend!

SHOUT OUT to The Graphics Fairy for sharing fantastic images.  
Graphics Fairy:  http://thegraphicsfairy.com/ 

Marcia Norwood
America's STORYTELLER
Telling Untold Stories in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking

Marcia Norwood, America's STORYTELLER

Blogs at:  tellmeastory-marcia.blogspot.com/