When something extremely rare happens, they say this: "Once a year, a stick shoots." The meaning of the pretext hints that the event is not significant. It is impossible to build any system on it and draw any conclusions. In other words, this is how His Majesty manifests itself. However, we will examine this issue in detail.
Value
It’s best to start with an example. Suppose that there is some Ivan Ivanovskiy. And here comes the math test. All students in the class, except for excellent students, are terribly nervous. The test passes, the teacher reads out the results, and it turns out that our loser got “excellent”. Those people who are used to being at the forefront of academic achievement will say with envy: “Well, once a year a stick shoots.” Although we think this situation will make both parents and teachers think. Has Ivanov become serious? But this will only show the further course of the educational process.
If you try to briefly formulate the main meaning of the saying, then the following will come out: this is what they say about events, either rare or unique. For example, a lagging student not only took part in the Russian language Olympiad, but also won it brilliantly. Or a football back made a hat-trick, that is, scored 3 goals in one match. What can I say, the proverb "once a year and the stick shoots" is suitable for characterizing the situation as well as possible.
Is randomness an isolated case of regularity?
There is a well-known tautology in the phrase, but it was such that it entered the language. It is difficult to establish the true source, but the viewer is familiar with the expression from the film “The Most Charming and Attractive” (1985).
So, the proverb “once a year and a stick shoots” just argues with this truth, because it has a different meaning: there are unique events and phenomena that are free from any regularity. They, like rare birds, sweep past us, leaving only the train of a miracle behind them.
The hypothesis is seductive in that it leaves a gap in the world for freedom, which means that everything is possible.
There are no accidents
There is another point of view on the same phenomenon. For example, the master of Ugway from the cartoon “Kung Fu Panda” (2008) believed that such a thing as chance does not exist. Everything is subject to a single pattern. Of course, the debate about whether there is freedom in being has a long philosophical tradition, but we do not want to bore the reader, so we use images that are close to everyone.
The question begs: "When the stick shoots, what is more about it - chance or pattern?" Let's compromise and say: there are both. The situation, due to which something arises, is formed, obeying the spontaneous stream of being, but a person should be ready for a chance, should always be on guard so as not to miss the moment. In other words, the stars must converge for the stick to fire at least once a year. The same double Ivanov would not have received "excellent" in the control in mathematics, if he had not been properly prepared, because knowledge does not appear from dampness, it grows from perseverance and labor. Another thing is that one-time success in the case of Ivanov may mean nothing at all, that is, the student will never be able to get together like that again. Who knows why, perhaps because it is difficult for him to study in principle, maybe at that moment in time there was a certain annoying factor, which then disappeared. For example, the parents told the boy that he was not capable of anything, and he decided in revenge to prove the opposite.
Moral phraseology
The moral instruction that can be extracted from the phraseology “once a year and the stick shoots” is diverse. On the one hand, the expression speaks of utmost caution regarding conclusions and judgments. The proverb probably love to use those people for whom the fame of skeptics has entrenched. But at the same time, the saying sets up an optimistic mood, for it leaves a place in the world for something unmotivated, random, unique, but not always beautiful, and perhaps the terrible lurks somewhere nearby.
One way or another, even the most amazing event is only the beginning of a long journey. Sometimes a new phenomenon in the world of sports and art grows out of a “stick shot”, and sometimes it is just a barren flower.
They talk a lot about talents now, but often it’s rare that anyone can really show themselves, because it is one thing to shoot, and quite another to stay on top. It is here that such qualities as zeal, diligence, diligence become important. Geniuses are not born, they appear in the process of reforging themselves. Man is material - so said F. Nietzsche and A. M. Gorky.