I Need to Let Go
I just wish it was easier.
Life is and always will be fleeting. It’s not as though I don’t know how “cliche” that sounds. It’s just a truth in life, one that goes hand in hand with so many other little quips about needing to be able to let go, how much life has to offer, or on the topic of the “power of love”. You’ve all heard them before. They are culturally accessible, even for the newcomers and the young. They roll of the tongue. Yet sometimes we try so hard to fight them, as if hundreds of generations hadn’t already consolidated the sums of their life experiences into these phrases and really hammered it home.
The problem we have is that we view it as a cop out. Like we just pulled on some prerecorded message in order to assuage the fears people have in their lives. That’s not the case though. (Now don’t get me wrong I still don’t think it’s the greatest response ever — there just is a great deal of thought put into it). The truth is, these “quips”, they hurt less.
“Time heals all wounds” — Translation, “Get over it, you’ll be happy down the road.” Don’t tell me it isn’t true. I’m not talking about your brother or mother dying. There are levels of discouragement that change this equation. But deep down we just want to soften the blow to our children going through tough breakups, or our friends who have rough patches in their lives. So we make a conscious decision to bestow a phrase of age old wisdom on them like a dollop of sour cream on a taco.
It isn’t a cop out. It a defense mechanism. One I think we’ve outgrown.
If you think people aren’t already changing the way language works in that manner, look at the world around you. Google “shell shock” it’s what PTSD used to be called, before PTSD it was called “Battle Fatigue” as if that’s any better. Thank George Carlin for that line of inquiry. Even the way we talk about pollution and ingredients in foods is toned down. Look at the way politicians talk. You’ve got half of the world trying to make things seem less bad when we need to be scared of them i.e. SIDS/PTSD etc. Then you have the other half of the world trying to make things way scarier than they really are i.e. North Korea/Bird Flu etc.
I’m not writing this, because I have an answer. I’m just writing about it because it felt like something I should mention. Just be aware of how you are spoken too. Don’t just read the news, read into the news. Tell the doctor to “give it to [you] straight”. Or don’t. Ignorance is bliss after all.
More stream of consciousnesses to come I’m sure, at some point.
- Jack
