Let’s Take it One Cliche at a Time

We use some expressions so frequently that we lose sight of the actual message they convey. I’m sure there are some cliches that make you cringe every time you hear them.

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Some of these are the ones that don’t sit right with me.

1. “I don’t regret anything” — Personally, I regret some of the things I’ve done in the past. I regret having formed some relationships, I regret trying my coworker’s food, I regret purchasing a gown from an online site that I did not end up wearing, I regret my first time skiing, and the list could go on and on. Of course, there are reasons why I regret everything I mentioned earlier, and the lessons I’ve learned from some of them have been eye-opening. It’s okay to be regretful for what you’ve done and wish things could have turned out differently. It does not imply that you should dwell on your expectations of how the alleged situation would have played out. I believe this even causes you to reflect on what happened and how you could approach a similar situation in the future more effectively. Regret simply means that you are sad or disappointed about something that has occurred or has been done. You can’t change what happened, but you can work to avoid it from occurring again.
2. “They can love you and still cheat on you, but if they respect you they won’t” — Sigh. I’m not sure how things got so bad in relationships. In any case, if you truly love someone, you will never cheat on them. When you love someone, you naturally respect them. If you truly love someone, as you claim, you will not intentionally hurt them.
3. “Ignorance is bliss” — How did ignorance and bliss end up in the same sentence? Google defines ignorance as a lack of knowledge or information and bliss as “perfect happiness; great joy.” So you’re saying that ignorance makes you happy? I understand that words or sentences can have different connotations at times, but I don’t think it works in this case. On Quora, I saw a post where someone gave an example of how certain countries are currently experiencing some kind of natural disaster. These people are in pain and have limited resources. Some have lost their families as a result of this, while others have been hospitalized and are unsure of their health’s fate. One person argued that such information saddens him greatly and that he would be better off not knowing about them at all because it hurts to know that people are indeed suffering. Another person argued that if everyone thought like this, no one would come to the aid of those who had been afflicted. Both individuals raised interesting points, however, sometimes it takes being or imagining being in unfortunate circumstances for one to use discretion. Not to say that the former is a bad person because of his statement, but when it comes down to it, he should weigh the pros and cons of ignoring a cry for help and see which truly saddens him. Overall, actively seeking knowledge, even in the most insignificant places, yields positive results.

More of these will be written as I recall them. Please let me know which of these you agree with and which you disagree with. I’m willing to see things from your perspective. Also, what statements do you frequently hear that you disagree with?

Thank you for reading🫶.