Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Platitudes and Poisoners


I like my platitudes, just like everyone else: Tomorrow is another day. It's hard to argue with the logic of that one. The early bird gets the worm. Been there too late and seen the worm missing often enough to know this is true. Remember, man, that you were dust, and to dust you shall return. Ah, there's nothing like a good old Catholic platitude to put your problems into perspective.

But one thing I can't stand is a platitude that's illogical or nonsensical. I know most people accept these, are uplifted by them, don't question them. But they just make me mad.

Today I saw this on on a local church's sign:

A smile is the same in all languages

Man! If I'da had a big piece of posterboard and some paint, I'd have hung another sign underneath it:

Bawling your eyes out is the same in all languages, too. So is screaming in pain. So... what's your point?

Does it make me a bad person that I want to poison this church's good intent (which I guess is to encourage smiling, especially when you're in a foreign country)? Simply because it's irrational and that makes me mad? I dunno.

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Comments:
I don't think it makes you a bad person. Instead think of it as a public service in that you are helping them hone their message.

One problem, of course, is that a smile doesn't always mean the same thing. It could connote happiness, amusement, the accepted practice of a server smiling at a customer, and sometimes it is a reflex reaction to an uncomfortable social snafu. Maybe you should ask them which one they mean.
 

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