[b]Op zondag 23 september 2001 00:26 schreef LuCarD - What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger -
hehe, dacht meteen aan dit verhaal toen (ok, _ik_ vond het grappig

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"A few entries back I revised a quote that was something along the lines of, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." I had added a few disclaimers at the end to make it "my own", but it actually got me to thinking (dangit).
There are many people who believe that phrase, even live by it. But what does it mean, exactly? After all, most of you are alive, right? (You freelance philosophers in the back can stop scratching your heads.) So, odds are, nothing has killed any of us at this point.
In fact, I think it's safe to say that anything you could come up with, whether it be a tube of tartar-control Crest, a dirt-encrusted leg warmer, or even George Clooney's 8x10 autographed glossy of Neil Diamond, it probably will not kill you. Therefore, according to the saying, they will make you stronger.
Even now, as you read this, my sister is making you stronger, simply by not killing you. (If the phrase is accurate.)
Originally, I was going to make a huge nonsensical list of things that make us stronger via the non-killing method, but I've since decided it would be a tremendous waste of both your time and mine. But if I were to have made the list, here are some of the things I might have put on it:
Lint removers, formica, Mr. Whiffle, any given novelty ice cream bar, the original Broadway cast of Cats, fuzzy dice, zucchini bread, the Growing Pains theme song, the late Ferdinand Magellan, non-toxic crayons, packets of fancy ketchup, umbrella stands, unbridled whimsy, Tetris, Van Gogh's Starry Night, discarded sugar-free gum wrappers, and the citizens of Manitoba.
However, I would have to argue that most of these things have not, in fact, made us stronger. This is only a small sampling of alleged strengthening agents, but this varied list helps prove my point:
Hang on, did I have a point? Oh yeah, now I remember.
Not everything that doesn't kill us makes us stronger.
I suppose a reversal of the phrase would be true: "That which kills us doesn't make us stronger." Unless you count the line from Star Wars in which Obi-Wan says to Darth Vader, "If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine." (Or something like that.) But only a small percentage of us have any jedi blood, so that doesn't count, really.
I know what some people have been thinking throughout my whole tirade: "The phrase refers to things that almost kill you, but don't. Moron." (The added epithet is optional.)
But what about things that weaken a person? Fatigue, disease, starvation, dehydration, they're all things that can significantly weaken an individual. So, if it doesn't kill them, it simultaneously makes them stronger while it weakens them? I don't get it.
Perhaps the most accurate phrasing would be, "That which does not kill us, doesn't weaken us, and doesn't have a negligible effect on us, makes us stronger."
I suppose it loses something in the clarification.
But you know what they say, "That which does not confuse us, makes us smarter."
Or something like that.
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