you think you know things...

i had a plan for this post that was totally annihilated by 10 minutes of research. i was going to write about the frequency with which we use phrases and quotations that are totally obscure and whose origins we often know nothing about. my first example was going to be the use of the phrase "He ain't heavy, he's my brother." i was one of the people (and i think there are a lot of us) who believed that it was historically true that the phrase was uttered and recorded at the doorstep of Father Flanagan at Boys Town Omaha sometime in the early 20th century. because not everyone is aware of places like Girls and Boys Town, i have often pondered whether the people who use the quotation in standard exchange ever wonder where it came from. it then occurred to me that before i dash into a long diatribe about something like this, i should find out if what i think i know is actually something i know. good thing i checked. turns out the phrase was a caption to a drawing by someone named B. Van Hooper. Father Flanagan purchased the right to use the image and to change the caption to read "He ain't heavy, Father, he's m' brother." (Rather than "He ain't heavy, Mister...") How misleading! ok, i am not actually bothered by the usage and adaptation, but i am perplexed by the frequency with which people use the phrase now and just make shit up about it. during my 10 minutes of research i discovered that there are millions of page hits that contain the phrase. i clicked on a few. every one of them has a different story to accompany the phrase. if you know you don't know something, don't make shit up. this is especially annoying to me when it's so obvious that people are just lazy about it. my favorite example being the "serenity prayer". here's a newsflash: just because you are too lazy to find out who said what does not make something "author anonymous" or "author unknown". it's only unknown to those who don't bother to know. Reinhold Niebuhr wrote the serenity prayer. his name is not unknown nor is the authorship of the prayer. his work shouldn't be unknown either, having been one of the most brilliant and passionate theologians and ethicists ever to grace our world and now our libraries. anyway, i feel duped by the 'he ain't heavy' story and now every unoriginal phrase i utter will be suspect. i am going to make it my goal to do some research any time i find myself quoting the "unknown". wikipedia, people. it can help, or at least point in the direction of help. but seriously, learn about Reinhold Niebuhr. he's important.