A note on an old adage

There's an old clichéd saying that I'm sure you're all aware of. It goes something like this: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Now, the way I've learnt to understand it is as meaning that whenever life gets you down, the best course of action is to not to wallow but to try to be industrious and make the best of it. It's certainly good advice, but over the years the way it's been chanted almost like a mantra by people insistent on always remaining positive and optimistic has led it to becoming hackneyed and cheap, as far as phrases go anyway. In case it hasn't come across yet, that is indeed my opinion of it as well (to be honest, if you ever said it to me in person, I would definitely think less of you for it) or at least it was until last night.

You see, I was mulling over a variety of topics in a meaningless and roundabout way, as the mind tends to wander late at night, and I came to this phrase, and it occurred to me that lemonade requires more than just lemons. This wasn't the first time this had occurred to me (as I said, I never thought particularly highly of the phrase) and I had always simply attributed it to the fact that it was a stupid little statement not meant to be taken too seriously. But for some reason I decided to take it seriously anyway.

If we really should make lemonade when life gives us lemons, then we're going to need more than lemons. To make decent lemonade, you're going to need some sugar and carbonated water at the bare minimum, and if life is giving you lemons it's not about to just hand out those premium ingredients. So if you're going to make lemonade you're going to need to already have sugar and carbonated water before the lemons come, and that means you're going to have to expect lemons to come and plan for when they do. Using this interpretation, the saying not only urges you to make the best of a bad situation, but warns you to be prepared for when bad situations inevitably arise in order to do so.

Now, lemons are sour and apparently a bad thing, and represent the bad times, clearly, and sweet, delicious lemonade represents the better times, the fruits of your labour if you will. But then what do sugar and carbonated water represent? I admit that as far as ingredients go, they're both pretty tasty. Maybe in that capacity they represent the fact that you need a mixture of good and bad elements to make a truly good result. Maybe they represent the sort of conditions you need to turn a bad thing into a good one, like a good character (the interpretation I prefer). Honestly, you could make it out to be what you will, but whatever you prefer I think you have to admit that this adage in particular is a lot more interesting and useful when you look at it this way than using the simple, common interpretation.

If you tell it to me though, I'm still not going to appreciate it.