Emily McDowell has created a spectacular series of what she terms “empathy cards for serious illness”. These cards address the annoying things people hear when they are ill, things that are often laced with religious sentiment (like everything happens for a reason). Emily has a great card for that “everything happens for a reason”; the front reads: Please let me be the first to punch the next person who tells you everything happens for a reason. I also really like, When life gives you lemons, I won’t tell you a story about my cousin’s friend who died of lemons.
Oh how I wish I had these when I was ill.
If you know a non-religious person or even a person that is fed up with some of the things said to ill people ad nauseam, consider sending one of Emily’s cards!
h/t Seth Andrews
Brilliant! 😀
Hilarious! Thanks for the heads up!
Well actually, I’ve always been struck by the double edged insinuation this saying entails.
Everything happens for a reason (to come later).
Everything happens for a reason (which has already preceded).
So I think a better reason for ending the use on ill people, is that it is vexing enough to cause a serious headache in people who are the last to need one.