I’d like to say a few, or more, words about shit.
There’s that saying, true saying might I add, that “shit happens”.
And it’s very natural, not all things we put in our mouth (and swallow) are useful for our body – not to mention that we’d get even fatter; so some has to come out, the bad stuff or excess / the recycled, the left-overs. Liquid is piss and solid is shit. Well, sometimes shit can be pretty liquid too but for comfort sake let’s not get into details.But, as I was saying, shit does happen, it’s a natural phenomenon, we share it with the rest of the animals (as they eat too) and we also instinctively associated the word with the bad stuff, just like the stuff that our organism decided that is, well, shit.
And so whenever something bad happens, we tend to make appeal to the word shit, and we have quite some expressions around it too. Surely you must know some, like the simple ones: Oh shit! Shit happens. Shit Happened. Holly shit! or Holly fucking shit! or just Fucking Shit! or Shit hit the fan! or Shit is going down!
And indeed it’s very intuitive, natural. So much so that actually: do you know what makes “shit go down”?
Maybe you do, but in case you don’t here’s the scientific answer: gravity! Gravity makes the shit go down. It’d be floating about otherwise would’t it?
Part II
So we know shit is a natural thing, very much like gravity and we’ve seen the connection how, because of gravity, shit inevitably will go down. Also we’ve remembered some expressions that are present with us in our everyday life as reactions to bad shit.
But about those expressions with shit; though most of them are natural exclamations, just reflecting amazement equal to merely interjections, there have been appearing some shitty expressions too – with shit. And one in particular which is not very rational, not mostly it seams to me, is really bugging the shit of me. Here it is:
“Shit happens so get over it!”
Well… where should I begin?
Yes, as mentioned above, shit does happen, and normally – as it’s not an un-natural thing, not an extra-ordinary thing to happen, we’d rightfully think it’s normal to “get over it” and to see this as the best thing to do.But if you notice, the incentive here is rather passive in relation to ‘the shit‘. Which I think is a bad idea and can / will lead to passive behaviour regarding shit.
I mean, NO! Don’t JUST get over it! If you say just that then the receiver is tempted to have the excuse to do JUST that, after all, it’s the natural thing to do.But if we’d do JUST that, we’d be swimming in shit. Not that we aren’t more or less (at least sometimes) already swimming in shit, and I’d say that’s due to such passive attitude.
So again, no, don’t just get over it. Is it yours? Clean it up! Notify the author if it’s not you, the author might be deluded in thinking it’s jelly-beans and might need an awakening; or maybe it is jelly-beans and you could use an awakening. Don’t accept shit like it’s just so natural to swim in it… clean the pool at least now and then.
Now, I must say, sometimes you should just get over it and indeed it’s not very rational to dramatise – but don’t go in the other extreme either. Like: you planned a picnic and it started to rain – I suppose some might be tempted to say shit happened, but it’s just water, you CAN (could) actually swim in it and dance and enjoy the rain. Or you tripped and hurt your self… unless you fell on a spear or broke your neck – it’s nothing, you might be upset as to bring shit drama into it, if so – so be it, shit happens – you’ll heal, indeed not much to do but put a patch on it (but even so you did something – didn’t just get over it).
My reaction is to this incentive for passivity (aware or not). This expression tends to be used when someone might really be down, a wreck, with low self-esteem, low or no hopes, disappointment, the kind of situation when some empathy would be helpful, someone to say “i’m with you” or “me too” or someone to remind them of the successes too, to remind them that failures bring lessons and assure better new tries, better chances for new beginnings, and of how natural it is sometimes to make mistakes or be overwhelmed, that everything can be OK again, just hang on, that they believe in him/her…
The one that is down, to which the shit happened, is so because he/she cares about something (positive) and doesn’t need to be reminded that it happens, they know, they feel it. And your reminder and incentive to be passive (mostly negative) is not really helpful.An encouragement is usually what’s missing for the needy to materialise own potential in a solution motivated by the care on the situation – a rational / realistic and empathic encouragement. Instead this expression usually motivates dropping the problem entirely, not caring anymore, it suggests so quite aggressively / disregarding.
Also, personally, I don’t recommend getting stuck to sympathy or falling to the coziness of superficiality – artificiality or silver-lining – which is usually bitter and a let down.