<-- may -->
Lemonade

I saw it on a little sign at Mae's today. "When life
hands you lemons, make lemonade." I always thought it
meant something like, "when you get into a crappy
situation, make the best of it"! With lemons
representing something sour and distasteful.

"Oh yeah," goes the rebuttal, "what if life hands you
shit? You can't make shitade! I never get any lemons!"

Now I think this is exactly the attitude the little
aphorism is trying to warn you against. What I think it
means now is: do what you can with what you've got. Don't
try and grow rose bushes when you get lemons. Don't try
and make lemonade with shit. Don't sit around waiting for
life to hand you exactly what you want. You've got
something right now; get to work with it.

I don't know why these things seems so different in my
head. All I know is, I always thought the lemonade thing
was the stupidest saying I'd ever heard. Now I sort of
get it, but I'm annoyed at myself for not understanding
that sooner.

You can't teach wisdom with aphorisms. They're only
really meaningful to someone who already knows the lesson
they are meant to impart. Then you can put them on a cute
plaque with drawings of flowers and lemons and hang them
in your diner, where they do exactly no good to anybody,
as usual.