Nice day blues

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty tired of the “Have a nice day” line. It’s worn out, illogical and about as endearing as a sneeze. I suspect the phrase began as “I hope you have a nice day” or something of that sort and morphed into the directive we hear now. It’s illogical in that we can’t fully control our day. So saying “Have a nice day” is like telling your mom not to worry. It won’t change anything.

The religious folks put their spin on the line by wishing a blessed day, and the overachievers beseech a joyful, wonderful, awesome, or some other type of day. (Speaking of awesome, it doesn’t mean what it use to.) If you really want someone to have a good day, don’t burden them with a worn out cliche. Just smile and move on.

Some will say, what’s wrong with trying to spread a little sunshine. We could use more of that. I say, repeating a tiresome cliche spreads about as much warmth as a robo call. We’ve got to banish these banalities from our conversation before they turn us all into robots.

If I had a dollar for every time I was told to have a nice day, I could buy a Porsche 911 turbo and have several nice days. Until, that is, a state trooper pulled me over, gave me a ticket, and told me to have a nice day.

GARY L. GAINES, Cape Girardeau