Cliches (sans the accent mark)

It is interesting that they are so many cliches in life, and in so many languages, and people in every country say these cliches without reservations, yet not many people take them to heart.

I do not think cliches are called cliches because they’re old, worn out expressions that need to be buried; I think, as it is said in the show Californication, cliches are called cliches because they are true - which is probably stolen from someone else.

But even if that expression about cliches has itself become a cliche, it is still true: cliches offer entry-level understanding about complex and convoluted subjects and conundrums. 

One such example, the beaten-to-beyond death cliche of “there are plenty of fish in the sea” is a beautiful example of introducing a newly heartbroken teenager into the understanding that there will be others for him or her to love (and, probably, become heartbroken over as well).

However, people have a knack of taking a cliche, which I am sure was once an insightful piece of knowledge for everyone hearing it for the first time, and adding their own unique spin on it, or their own little adage to make it sound fresh and new and insightful once again. I am guilty of this, as I once tweeted:

           “You are a fish in the great, open ocean.

I am here, in a rowboat, fishing in a Midwestern lake.”

I got seven likes on that bad boy. I believe I had just gotten done fishing in Mammoth, California when I tweeted that (not exactly a Midwestern lake).

I look at that now, which was about two and a half years ago, and I don’t like that I called some fictional, shapeless person a fish. I get I was simply alluding to the aforementioned cliche, but I don’t know. It feels like I further dehumanized my made up person.

But my point still stands. We as humans, who love to complain about cliches, also love to create based off cliches, or attempt to create a new universal truth, which will one day be regarded as a cliche.

Hemingway once said, “All you have to do is write one true sentence.”

If all I did in life was write one true sentence, I too would be happy. 

And I think that that one true sentence would one day become a cliche because the truth is very much a cliche.

Sometimes it seems cliches just enter one ear and exit the other when spoken, and that’s because these expressions are so deeply rooted in us, that we immediately understand the meaning of the words, so we let the words themselves float away.

It’s much like the phrase “I love you,” which some would argue is a cliche. People want it to always be meaningful when someone tells another “I love you.” But people, especially those have been together for a long time, know the core meaning and depth behind the words coming from the person, so those three words float in and out, but the meaning still rooted in that person is “activated” or what have you, and he or she feels the words.

But maybe those three words don’t fall out of your ear; perhaps you soak in the words to give food to the meaning growing in your brain. And that’s beautiful too.

I don’t know how much sense I am making, but I do know that some people really, really hate cliches. But what are cliches but universal truths? What are proverbs but cliches spoken by very wise people?

Cliches are defined as lacking original thought. Do any of us have original thoughts? What about the whole notion behind the death of the author? Is there anything new under the sun - including thoughts?

In the end, these original-less expressions help guide us into very complex ideas and realities of life; Cliches are our Charon, and we are Dante. 

Upon reading this, I realized I have written “cliche” way too many times in this. Forgive me.