Quote of the Day:
“A watched pot never boils.” –cliche*
They say that if you want something to happen very badly–find true love, receive an overdue promotion, have a sip of delicious hot tea–you must not concentrate on the result. In fact, it is much better if you forget about what you want altogether. Only then, they reliably inform us, will you achieve your purpose.
TB hates this cliche.
Yet, I must confess. I used it this weekend and not for the first time. Sometimes it just comes in so damn handy; particularly when something good comes to oneself or those near and dear to him, something they have long deserved and desired and about which they have all but given up hope. But did the aspirant lover have nothing in common with his mate? Did he not charm her with his dry wit and sly grin? Did the girl not work diligently for years on end? Did she not earn the company outsized profits? Did the burner not produce heat? Is the boiling point a matter for political debate?
Nonsense! Yet, there again, the ignoring obviously did not hurt the cause of the lover, the worker nor the tea. Can looking the other way actually help?
It happens too often to dismiss the notion entirely. Let’s just agree to never suggest it as a course of action for someone who is lonely, under appreciated, or thirsty. I’ve been there. I still hate the damn cliche. Even if, in my own life, it’s turned out so often to be true.
Well, we know what they say. What say you?
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*A bit of researchipedia turns up an interesting fact on the origin of this cliche. According to two sites (which may very well have relied upon the other–who knows–the quote comes from English author Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton (1848).
take a leap