Cliched Sympathy

It's just a dog.

Tell that to the friend who won't vacuum her house for fear of erasing every last remnant of her best friend.    Say it to those who come home to nothing but a wag of a tail.  Tell those kids, those elderly patients; anyone stuck in a sick ward. that a lick to the face is merely instinct.  Convince them that a kiss from a dog means absolutely nothing. 

She doesn't deserve you.

Tell me again about this plentiful sea of other fish.  Go ahead use cliches if it makes YOU feel better.  If comfort is found in shitty little phrases, let us hurt.  Sometimes, saying nothing is okay.  But look, I suppose this plentiful sea of other fish sounds pretty good during those moments of lonely introspection.  But if you've ever seen a school of fish, they all look the same.  They all move the same.  They all swim the same.  They are all the same.  So, forgive me, for not being willing to settle for the ordinary.  But I don't listen to cliches and I don't speak in cliches because I have other fish to fry.

You only live once.

Quite clever, my friend.  Balls to the walls, is that what you're saying?  Because it seems to me, if we only live once, then reckless abandon seems really unwise.  But hey, that's me, Mr. Calculated and Cautious.  I suppose time is winding down.  And I suppose, a wasted minute is a minute never recovered.  But I don't believe we only live once.  I believe how we conduct our lives now is accounted for in the next life.  And in the next life, there are no do-overs.

Life isn't fair.

Says who?  Where do these entitlement issues come from?  Who's to say we don't deserve suffering? 

How beautiful that rainbow is, I heard you say as minutes before you complained about the rain and dark skies.  How can we recognize beauty if we've never seen the ugly?  Life provides balance and nothing says fairness more than balance.  So, I ask you, Is life really unfair or are our expectations unfair?

She's in a better place.

This isn't about her.  This is about me.  The one left behind.  How does her destination make a difference that I and them have to wake up each day knowing we won't see or speak to her again?  Tell me, what comfort there is in the knowledge that someone else is now bathing in her warmth and her love.  Explain to me how that better place makes this place more bearable without her.  She may be in a better place but please, tell me something relevant or tell me nothing at all.

I am sorry.

Thank you.