Nearly 15 years ago, in a very different age, Whitney took to these interwebz to decry the use of the trite in most conversation and how it signals a lack of creativity. At least that's how I took it.
Among other things, he took aim at "it is what it is". He had no way of knowing at the time that my father would fall back on that phrase to deflect well-meaning concern from folks worried about the progress of the cancer that would eventually take him. Fucking cancer.
And I write what follows with some trepidation, because "it is what it is" became meaningful enough to me that a graphic variant of the phrase is tattooed on my arm. Let's hope nobody here has cause to claim "thank you for all that you do".
I don't love the ubiquitous "thank you for your service" many people offer to our military and veterans, but it's a damn sight better than how we treated uniformed service members early in my life, and it at least acknowledges a specific sacrifice made.
"Thank you for all that you do", on the other hand, is the absolute bare minimum one human can offer another. It requires no creativity, no active thought about what the received actually, y'know, does. It's the gratitudinal equivalent to saying "you are here".
In first encountered the phrase in question in a corporate setting, when some anodyne executive thanked a team by using it. I knew from the moment he said it that he didn't really know what the team did or how they contributed. Or if he did know, didn't care enough to take the 30 seconds to think about it and offer a tiny little customized grace note.
Look, I know that cliches exist for a reason - they're a shorthand that can be helpful in certain situations. And I'm prone to my own verbal and written crutches (this sentence offers one such exhibit - I start way too many sentences with "and"- this is the second one in this short post). Dammit, though, when I'm trying to tell someone I appreciate them, I try really hard to be sincere, and at least offer an inflection that conveys I mean what I'm saying.
It's possible I'm becoming (even more) curmudgeonly as I age, and that I protest too much about an innocuous platitude. I can only offer my own testimony here. You may not share my opinion. If that's the case, I hope you have a great day, and thank you for all that you do.
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What do you think about corporate emails announcing that some senior level person got the axe, but they don't want to make it sound that way so they use the passive voice and say the person as issue "has chosen to pursue other opportunities" and follow that up with "We thank him for his service to the company"?
Just corporate pablum, I suppose. I’m on the tarmac in charlotte, nola bound.
Almost missed my flight out of Roanoke thanks to a vigorous pat down from a tsa agent, while they paged me on the pa. Fortunately they heard me shout from tsa line and waited.
Small airports have their advantages.
Now it’s time to cue up jelly roll morton telling yarns of the old time hustlers, pimps and piano players in the city of new orleans.
i don't love that one, z, but at least it's borne out of a desire to help someone save face.
Rootsy, you’ll be gone 500 miles ‘fore the day is done.
Glad you made it. I hope you thanked TSA for all they do.
well played, sir. well played indeed.
rootsy, please to be giving us your itinerary in that fair city. are you there on some sort of business, or will you be laissezing les bon temps rouler?
As Rootsy explained it to me, he's attending a conference. Something about preparing for natural disasters coming to your town, since he and I will be taking on the sundry public houses and gin mills of the Star City next Thursday night.
I’ll mix in plenty of pleasure, and I’m staying over til Monday.
RIP Marcello Gandini. You don't know his name but you know what he did.
Took the day off to head down the Jupiter with my sister and my folks for Cards-Mets spring training. Who loves baseball? This guy.
Reporting in after 3 hours sleep last night. Have been revived somewhat by a shrimp po-boy, a bloody mary with some live piano jazz for desert, then a little 35 minute power nap. Almost time to get really geeked out over printing.
Jealous of Rootsy AND Mark
nobody told me you can nap in new orleans
tribe women hoopers can do anything the men can do. by which i mean lose early in a conference tournament. womp and womp.
I was only planning on a 10 minute lie down, but set alarm for an hour late.
I am mildly amazed that I woke up on my own after 30 minutes.
Yoodge day at GTB.
we're all napping in solidarity with rootsy
and mourning the end of aaron donald's nfl career.
great moment in fratguy philosophy for me today. several months ago, i dragged a few largeish logs/branches from the church next door into my yard to use in the firepit. most of them got consumed, but a good-sized one lingered in the yard until today. my wife has been on me to get rid of it or break it down for a while. this morning, our yard guys made their first visit of the year to do some edging of mulch beds and general cleanup, and they took the branch away.
as the great darren brown once said, "ignore your problems until they go away, and if they don't go away, they were too big for you to handle in the first place." my man, spitting universal truths.
Robbie, I have borrowed this credo for years and years. It’s remarkable how often this plays out.
Morning Gheorghies. Woke up at 6 to run a Guinness fueled 5k. So I’m now a Guinness and a half deep plus a shot of Jameson deep. And I’ve got my exercise in.
i was wondering why you said that in my comments!
i have heard that phrase-- whatever-- nobody knows all the planning and shit I do to run my classes (but I did get a crazy email from a lady a few weeks ago-- her daughter is on home instruction and I told her to drop the rutgers class and take the easy english class bc no one should do the rutgers class remotely and the mom intercepted the message to the kid and reamed me out about telling her daughter to QUIT something and at the end of her email she wrote "do better" which I thought was amazing . . . then she came to conferences, never mentioned the unhinged email and was supersweet and thankful for all I do-- dealing with the general public and their children is nuts)
yooooooge up in here. sko buffs.
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