I Hate Stephen Stills

You shouldn’t heed advice from pat, trite phrases.

I’m talking phrases like “Better to have love and lost than never to have loved at all.”

If love is that good then losing it should be the worst thing to ever happen to you.  Much worse than never knowing love.
There were times when I wasn’t “in love.”  I was FINE.  Being heartbroken lasts.  It stays with you.  Love merely existing can’t overcome losing something that amazing.
And the people who say stuff like this say it with this air of self-awareness that they’re saying something that is sooo “profound.”
It took a crabby old Tommy Lee Jones in Men In Black for me to realize this is just some stupid phrase that, for some reason, caught on and now everyone says it as if it actually means anything.

I also hate “All’s fair in love and war.”
Actually, no.  No it isn’t.  There are rules in war.  Ever heard of Rules of Engagement?  Well, I’ve never seen that movie, but there are still rules in war.  You can’t just do anything.  So don’t try to make excuses as to why you should steal your best friend’s girl just because of some misinformed idea that all is fair in war and therefor it is the same in love.
What the hell do those things even have to do with one another?
Screw you, John Lyly.

Another trite phrase is the chorus of one of my least favorite songs.
Stephen Stills’ “Love the One You’re With.”
He sings, “If you can’t be with the one you love, honey, love the one your with.  Dit dit dit dit dit dit dit dit, dit dit dit dit dit dit dit dit, dit dit dit dit dit dit dit dit, dit dit dit, dit dit dit.”

I hate this song.

It is probably one of the worst bits of advice I’ve ever heard, too.  It’s basically telling people to settle in their love life and live a lie by faking love for their partner.
That should go well.
At least it’s not telling you to just cheat.  The song could suggest, “If you can’t be with the one you love, honey, do it with someone else.”  But it doesn’t have the same ring to it.

All I’m saying is, don’t turn to trite phrases that are meant to be cutesy for advice.  It’ll be bad advice.

I suppose I could’ve shortened this blog if I had just written, “Don’t listen to Dr. Phil.”  Oh well.

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