There are moments in life, that are so extraordinary, that spoiling them with cliché remarks would be like committing a sin.
Yeah, I’m talking about the greatest greeting cards moments: birthdays, weddings, baby born, new job, new house and the likes.
Since I turned 25, people have been throwing me the regular birthday wishes – the Indonesian thing: Selamat ulang tahun, semoga selalu diberi kebahagiaan, kesehatan, kesuksesan dan segera dapet jodoh! When translated, it would sound something like this: Happy birthday, wishing you happiness, health and success, and finding that Mr. Right soon!
The bold, italic and underlined part is an Indonesian thing. So every year, for five years, I’ve been getting the same old…, same old.
Indonesian wedding wishes were just as terrible. People would usually write in the wedding card: Selamat menempuh hidup baru, semoga selalu diberikan kebahagiaan dan keturunan-keturunan yang saleh/a. Which, when translated would say: Congratulations with your new life together, may you always have happiness and blessed with wonderful kids.
My gosh.
Hey, it’s not that I don’t appreciate people wishing each other happiness, or success, or health, or finding “he/she right” soon, or having wonderful kids. I am just intrigued with the lack of originality and perhaps sincerity, in the ways people use when extending wishes to someone’s extraordinary moment. Cliché.
Wouldn’t it be great, if you could actually write in a wedding card: “Hey, finally!! The moment is here. Happy marriage!! It would suck more from now on, but the endless sex could be great. Congratulations!”
Now, that would be brutally honest, but sincere. I would admire that.
Or perhaps, instead of saying ordinary birthday wishes like above, one could say: “Happy birthday girl, though you’re getting old and still haven’t found your man, don’t lose hope. Keep looking!”
Or, something like: “Happy birthday. Geez you’re 30 and still single! But you do have a great career, so nothing to sweat about!”
Original, sincere.
With boyfriend who is kinda king of non-clichés, I have always tried giving him the least expected comments - as he too, has always blurted comments that were out of the blue, least expected, hilarious. To me, it wouldn’t matter if it sounded corny, I love corny (hah! this is a quote from a movie) – so long as it’s not same old, same old.
Like a few days ago when he told me that he fell from a tree, I responded with: “try not to fall from a tree too often hunny, I’d like to keep you in one piece – and if you fall again, I’ll push you myself so you’ll get more bruises”.
Endearing isn’t it? Brutal, but at least, it came from the heart.
Spice it up, people.
5 comments:
good writing!
at least you receive some attention, dear. some (or most) of us are not so articulate like you are ;)
hahaha, Metty! you are right about the attention part. but most of the times i say the cliches too. esp when i know that the person i'm talking to won't be able to take my bluntness and honesty.
and really, I am only mostly joking in my blog... sometimes, people take me too seriously (disclaimer available hahahaha).
hemm ada benernya jg...
gw yg jelas pas kemarin ultah senang banget karena manusia2 yg dideket gw gak ngarepin seperti cepet dapat anak hehehe mungkin gak berani karena galak kali yeee hahaha tp ada satu ucapn yg corny but nice... adding another candle doesnt make you necessary older, it just makes your life brighter! :)
Haaa...that sounds better right...
Iya nih akhir2 ini I've been saying many cliche things too often *sigh* Usually it comes as I wanted to greet people and my brain suddenly stopped and I could only producing standard cliche words *damn!*
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