As I may have already established (I think..), I have a fair few pet peeves in regards to language and words, and the attitudes, or perceptions, that they illicit, or exhibit.
I was recently texting with a younger friend of mine - admittedly having a rough time at the moment - and the phrases "fml" and "I hate life" cropped up. As did the idea for this post. Duh. Duh. Duh. (dramatic music duh's, not duh - stupid :-P)
I extremely, absolutely, most definitively dislike the "fml" thing. "Fuck My Life". It gets thrown around a lot by those who think that they are hard done by. Let's face it, people - everyone, E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E, in one way or another thinks that they are hard done by at some time in their lives - more than once, I suspect. But this melodramatic fml thing shits me.
This is where the COBS kicks in - because I am probably being ENTIRELY hypocritical in this - but I do not have any memory of missing a bus, throwing my hands up in the air and declaring it is the end of the world. I may have uttered a few choice words, but the one event does not render my life a complete failure. Neither do I believe that "life" went out of its way to make me suffer. Missing the bus, in the rain, at 6 am is just one of those happy coincidences.. :-P
About 12 months ago, I was talking to another friend (not so young ;-)) who declared that life was cruel. It was at that moment that I realised that life is life. It is objective. Life continues with or without you.
Life is not your enemy and out to get you. Life is a state of being.
Since this realisation, I been more aware of people's declarations about their lives and life.. or is that Life? :-P I have started putting LML in my statuses on FB - just to make a point - you know, it is surprising I don't get punched.. and not so surprising, I am a nige ;-)
With this last fml and I hate life, I realised that human beings personalise "Life". Life is an experience, not a person. True, we speak of "lives lost", but really, we mean physical mechanical bodies lost. My experience of death and dying leads me to believe that whilst it is the physical body that house those we know and love, the life that "ends" continues to live on in those who are touched by that physical life. Life goes on - within and without you.
Life doesn't have it in for you. Quite frankly, Life could care less, I suspect.
I understand that we need to personalise Life. We see it as who we are. Our lives are ours. We cease to exist when there are "no signs of life". When the physical body is "incompatible with life". ( I actually heard this term used recently by a doctor about a deteriorating patient!) Your life may be over, but it is really only the carbon based form that you inhabit now that is over. Who is to say that life isn't a recyclable? Maybe that is the cruelty of Life - that you get a do-over, without actually consciously remembering the last.
Hmm I have lost my train of thought. Maybe this whole post is an over reaction (you know I am a self declared rat bag :-P). I believe in the power of words. As I get older, that belief gets stronger. As we are moving through time, we seem to be taking words for granted and just using them without meaning or purpose, and we seem to be surprised when somebody gets hurt by our words. For some of us, the use of our words has become something like the fast food that we eat - the disregard for spelling, the disregard for the structure of lagnguage - the way we communicate has become lazy and obese. We take short cuts. We use words out of context. We are so focused on fixing the physical, at the cost of other aspects (not across the board - I know - very general statement :-P).
FML shits me because it is a flippant throwaway use of words. Be responsible for your life. Life is not out to get you. Sure, missing the bus at 6 am, in the rain, in winter, when your shift starts at 7 am bites the big one - but there will be another bus, you can catch a cab, you can call into work to tell them you missed the bus and will be late.. but your life is hardly fucked.
No comments:
Post a Comment