Thane turned me on to a wonderful blog a couple of years ago. Breed ‘Em and Weep is this great blog. There’s stuff about her adventures with her daughters, with her mother, with her haunted house, with her dogs, with her husband, and just about life in general. I can’t relate to everything, but a lot of it is touching and funny and… well, she’s just a damn fine writer. Even when I can’t fully relate, I can always appreciate fine writing.
Anyways, she posted something over a week ago that I just got around to reading today. I wish I had found it a week ago. I think I could have used it. It’s a long post imagining what she would say if she were given a chance to do a spot on NBC’s public awareness campaign, “The More You Know.” Here’s a brief excerpt:
Wondering what to say to a sad friend? Here’s what you don’t say: you don’t preface a sentence with YOU JUST HAVE TO or YOU JUST NEED TO or IF YOU COULD JUST.
Why? I’ll tell you why. If any one of those phrases finds its way out of your well-meaning mouth and into a truly sad person’s ears, it becomes mighty clear mighty fast to him or her that profound, persistent sadness is not your forte, and trying to explain it to you will be about as helpful as trying to explain the difference between chartreuse and spring green to someone who’s colorblind.
It’s a lovely, lovely essay. I would post it all here, but I don’t want to step all over her copyright. And she deserves eyes. So go read the whole thing on her blog. There are a few introductory paragraphs (including what I hope is a fake – but given some of the spam I’ve received probably isn’t – response to someone who tried to comment on her blog), but it’s all worth it.
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