Simple Thought

Work is getting slow at the tax forms job, which means more time for blog writing.....yay!......but a lot less money......boo! I guess life has its trade-offs. I get to be poor and you get to read my inspirational words. Wait a second. I think I got the short end of the stick.

I dislike the saying, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." It is totally false in every way. If you have a disease, does it make you stronger? I don't think so. If you get repeatedly punched in the head, does it make you stronger? No way. If you are verbally abused every day of your life, does it make you stronger. I'm thinking no. So why do people always say it? Do they mean, "What doesn't kill you makes you mentally stronger to be able to deal with difficult things more easily?" Maybe. But even that isn't always true. People can get beat down mentally as much as they can physically. A truer saying would be, "What doesn't kill you really sucks and will probably make your life miserable for a while, or even to the end."

I'm not saying all this because I think people should have a negative attitude or give up when life gets hard. I'm just saying that sayings don't usually help. They are over-simplified, overly-optimistic, sometimes false, ways of looking at the world. If you want to make someone feel better, don't give them sayings. Give them help, give them REAL words from your heart or a quote from a beloved author. Before you say it, quotes are not the same as sayings. Quotes can sometimes turn into sayings if they are too simplistic or over-used. But quotes usually have so much more depth and meaning and are more than one line. Quotes come from a thoughtful approach rather than carelessly dropping a one line saying.

All I want people to know is that humans are more complex than sayings allow. Most problems will not be solved with a simple saying. People seem to forget more and more to put thought into what they do. If anyone wanted some advice from me, I would urge them to talk less and think more.