Driving back from a midnight snack-run the other night, one of my friends made the observation that all the good things in life (in this case chocolate covered ice-cream) are bad for you. After giving fatty foods and alcohol some thought, it occurred to one of other my friends to remind us that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.
This made me pause and think for a second: both of these words of wisdom fall into the category of axiomatic clichés people like to regurgitate from time to time. Why, I ask you?
Think about it: what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Indeed. I wonder what my good friend Helen Keller would have said about that? Probably not all that much, come to think of it, but you get my point. How many people have you heard extolling the virtues of surviving polio or small pox (or in Helen’s case scarlet fever or meningitis)? My guess is not all that many…
Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for trial and tribulation and taking the road less travelled by. I just hate the way people always want to tell victims of suffering that there is some kind of cosmic justification for going through hell. When my mom died everyone kept telling me that there was a reason for everything and that I should use the experience to grow. Gee thanks, I used to think, I’m so glad my mom could die to make me stronger!
Hah – you should listen to our friend Kanye West’s new single man
Incidentally, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is from Nietsche. I should still go read up on it at some time.
I do think you have a point though. Most likely you should replace that cliché with another – “Shit happens…”
Well said, I agree with you completely.