I'm not comfortable tossing out platitudes anymore. I don't believe them, so why would I write them to someone I care about?
I mean, sure, things may turn out to be for the best, but I can't say or write "This is the universe's way of saying..." or "You'll land on your feet." or "It's all for the best." or other things like that because I don't believe them. They may happen, and I can imagine them happening, I hope they happen, but I don't believe they will.
So, I spend my time feeling like a dick because I can't bring myself to write or a simple phrase that may lift a spirit. I feel like a dick because I can't think of anything else to say or write other than an often repeated phrase and I freeze.
Thank goodness so much of my "interaction" with the world is on the interblags which has a nice delay so no one knows that I freeze just because I can't be pleasant in a standard, ordinary way.
Blech.
4 comments:
Dude, helping people with words is my forte. e-mail me whenever you need advice. I am a natural.
I'm not good at them, either. It's the reason I dislike funerals and NEVER sign sympathy cards. I am sympathetic, but no words will feel true or meaningful enough for me to bother saying them.
Geewits -- I appreciate the offer, but it doesn't help when I'm sitting at my desk and a coworker walks in and says he's getting a divorce.
It's especially bad when I don't want the coworker to feel better.
Heels -- I tend not to sign sympathy cards either, unless it's safe to make a joke. Like recently, one of the judges went in for knee surgery, or something similar, and I used the phrase "leg up" in her card.
Didn't Pa used to say, 'a platitude of gratitude'?
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