I ponder cliches a lot. They are so trite at times, but they are also very often true-except when they aren’t.
For nearly every cliche there is an equal and opposite cliche. “Too many cooks spoil the broth.” Well, who wants spoiled broth? Gross. So, I’ll take one cook thanks! But then “many hands make light work.” What if the cook has several orders and is overwhelmed, will other cooks still spoil the broth? Maybe just have a lot of cooks if you aren’t making broth?
“The early bird gets the worm,” so the saying goes. Get out there and get it done, win the prize it seems to tell us. Yet, “fools rush in.” How are we to know if that bird was early to the game, or just a fool? I guess it all depends on if he has the worm or not?
It all seems a bit silly, I suppose. And perhaps on the surface, it is. But we seem to live in a time when all of us have fairly strong opinions on our beliefs. Social media provides a great platform for opinion and argument. Whether it is your stand on a given political candidate, some view on parenting, animal rights, guns, there are a lot of things to have an opinion about currently. There is a lot to be angry about even.
But what if there are not as many absolutes as we would like? What if things aren’t cliche easy, simple clear cut black and white? What if sometimes you are right but sometimes people who you disagree with are right? And what if your answer is only right SOME of the time?
I think about these things a lot because frankly these things blow my mind. I was raised to believe in black and whites, clear right and clear wrong. “You’ve got to stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything.” That was the cliche of my youth. It goes against everything in my early core being to not argue to the bitter end when I am sure I am right. But then I think about Einstein’s saying, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” And I am forced to step back and say “Which is it?” I generally find the answer is, “Both.”
The key is that it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Perhaps life is a bit deeper than being able to reduce it to a one cliche fits all status. Perhaps everything takes consideration and decision about when you must stand your ground and when you must change, when you need to cook alone and when you need help, when to jump in head first and when to use caution. There is a time for all of these things. Figuring out which one is best for the moment you are in is the tricky part. I think the first step is moving away from the black and whites and stepping into the grey areas, and accepting those grey areas and the mess and confusion that grey areas entail. One thing I say from my experience is this, most of the time the beauty of life in the grey outweighs all of the mess and confusion.
The truth may indeed be out there, but I haven’t found it absolutely yet. I think that life in the grey gives a great opportunity to be a peacemaker, and right now that may be the most beneficial thing on any social platform.
