A New Motto: “I’ve Ceased To Care”
After we had known each other about two years my husband
David and I were talking about some minor news item and he commented, “I’ve
ceased to care.” That sounded familiar
to me and I must have looked puzzled because he smiled and added, “You say that
all the time.” Hmm. That must be why it sounded familiar.
Since then I have noticed myself using it more and more, and
it’s a handy little phrase to have at the ready whenever you realized you’re
involved in something that’s a waste of time, no matter how promisingly it
started. Mutter “I’ve ceased to care” to yourself and
you suddenly have the freedom to move on to something worth exploring.
The problem is that in the 21st century we’re
constantly pounded by a blizzard of information in the form of social media,
television, apps, news, printing on boxes, music, phone calls—the list is
endless. Much of this is fascinating and
addictive. Facebook, for example, which
I used to scorn, can now reel me in like a fish, and hours later I look up and
realize I’ve looked at one too many fascinating videos or discussions or
startling ideas. Sure there’s a lot of
meaningless crap, but also the wonders of our civilization are presented seriatim
until the brain rebels. I find it very
useful to blow the whistle on this by announcing to myself that I’ve ceased to
care, at which point I rise stiffly from my current position and see whether my
blood still knows how to flow.
But this experience is not limited to the internet. I’m a longtime subscriber to Time Magazine, and I still find it
informative. But when I start into pithy
articles and then realize that the article is going to go on for more pages
than I want to read, the words “I’ve ceased to care” give me permission to skip
to the next article. Extending this idea I’ve learned to snap off TV programs
and even walk out of movies.
We only have so much time on the planet, and we should
harvest that time so it is as productive and entertaining as we can make
it. Allowing ourselves to wade knee deep
in trivia is messy, tedious, and embarrassing.
Of course you could say a number of other things other than “I’ve
ceased to care.” Some people routinely exclaim,
“I couldn’t care less,” which is fine (I suspect it arose as a way of dressing
up the simple comment of “I don’t care”).
The problem is that many people—even, alas, learned people—have
shortened the phrase to “I could care
less,” which means the opposite of what they intend (and annoys listeners who
care about the English language). [I’ve
complained about this before; see “Picking Your Battles: The Meaning of Words”;
http://douglaswhaley.blogspot.com/2011/07/picking-your-battles-meaning-of-words.html] The image below explains the difficulty.
I was playing bridge at a tournament recently and Jane
Witherspoon, a terrific partner whom I haven’t known long, between rounds was
sitting with two men who were arguing in an animated fashion. Seeing me coming, she rose to join me. “What was that about?” I asked her. “Oh,” she responded, “it was a disagreement on
the origin of religion—but I’ve ceased to care.” Then she smiled at me and we went off to play
the next hand.
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Related Posts:
“A Guide to the Best of My
Blog,” April 29, 2013; http://douglaswhaley.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-guide-to-best-of-my-blog.html
“Picking Your Battles: The Meaning of Words,” July 3, 2011; http://douglaswhaley.blogspot.com/2011/07/picking-your-battles-meaning-of-words.html
“Pronouncing ‘2012’,”
December 31, 2011; http://douglaswhaley.blogspot.com/2011/12/pronouncing-2012.html
“How To Stop Saying ‘You
Know’,” April 28, 2012; http://douglaswhaley.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-to-stop-saying-you-know.html
“Is It Okay Not To Use
Proper English?” August 10, 2013; http://douglaswhaley.blogspot.com/2013/08/is-it-okay-not-to-use-proper-english.html
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