I often sit here at the 'new post' screen and start to write something a little more meaningful than funny, a little more heavy than lighthearted.
I'll put down two or three paragraphs and then press delete in disgust. It doesn't sound serious. I don't seem to be able to convey the right tone. It just sounds cheesy. Even sentimental.
We've been to a number of secular 'ceremonies' recently and I have been struck by the sentimentality that is so easily spoken in vows and promises and blessings.
Things like: "Some friends are not with us today. But we know they are with us in spirit, and are here with us in our hearts."
Are they? Is anybody thinking about them at all? Are they really there in spirit, or did they just give a negative reply to the invitation because they had a better offer on the day?
Things like: "Our love will go on like a river, never ending, always fresh."
Nice thought. Too bad the lovers in question ended up in an argument by the end of the night.
Why is it that when we try to be meaningful, it so often ends up as sentimentality?
I think that when we what we say is based on truth, it will not be sentimental. It's when we have hopes or dreams that are fanciful, or based on a denial of reality, or on a utopian hope for the future that has never yet been fulfilled - that's when these things become sentimental.
My aim is to always tell the truth.
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I know what you mean. There are so many situations which people's worldview can't handle so there are these supposedly meaningful (but in the end unhelpful) pat statements that are made - like when I miscarried, so many people tell you "oh well it wasn't meant to be" - and I thought how can you know that? and surely every life should be meant to be? Another side to this though, is that sometimes something that is true can end up sounding sentimental, because we live in a perverse world that has degraded the most beautiful things - such as love.
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