Suck it up, buttercup

Have you ever told someone to ‘Suck it up, buttercup.’? Okay, so maybe not in those exact words, although I have heard people use the phrase. Now sometime it’s fine to say this. You know, saying it to a child who's not doing what they should. Like clean their room when it looks for all the world like a bomb went off in there. Hey, they’d rather be somewhere with their friends instead of being at home any day of the week, don’t you know. Or, when a kid won’t get up for school and the parent tells the inevitable tale of the walk to school in the chin high snow. However, there other times where it simply isn’t appropriate. Take for instance something I heard the other day at a soup kitchen. A person, who it was rather obvious hadn’t had a meal in a while, comes in. He’s rather impatient and doesn’t really want to go through the whole rigmarole of having to say name, etc. Hey, a hungry man just wants to go where there's bread and eat. One of the volunteers basically tells the poor man, to ‘suck it up, buttercup’ because they’d also gone 24 hours without food and water at some point in their life. This was neither helpful or necessary. There are times when we can show caring by commiserating with others, sharing our story to show we understand where they’re coming from. But this should never be used as a weapon to get someone to comply with our wishes. As I’ve often said, choose your words well and use your words wisely. As I sat with the man later, watching him eat far too much, far too quickly, I was hoping the volunteer was seeing this as well. No obstacle should’ve been put between this man and food. There is a time and a place for everything, except being unkind. Today, try an act of kindness as you set foot in the world. It's just makes everything so much better. Sun is better than clouds any day of the week...