When we snap a picture it is always capturing the best of that moment. Smiles, joy, pleasure, beauty. But what if, without our knowledge, snapshots were taken of the moment - best or not? What if the snapshot captured the scowl, the tears, the confusion, the anger, the frustration? What if there were snapshots that recorded pain, discomfort, ugliness, and misery? Would that make our lives any less? If snapshots captured the whole of our lives, not just the best moments, I suspect that as we flipped through the albums we would get a better perspective on the whole of life - not just the happy, shiny moments. What's so beautiful about life is the mix of both the happy moments and the unhappy moments. They all come together to make quite a beautiful life.
There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.
Comments
Post a Comment