Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Promises

What is it about promises really? What makes them so elusive? Why is it that the more you promise to do something the harder it is to do? Is it simply human nature to go against what it is that they say? Reverse psychology maybe? I'm sure you can relate to what I'm talking about.

In any relationship that you get into, whether it be a friendly one, or an intimate one, you're bound to make promises. "I promise to pick you up at 7:30" you get there at 8, "I promise to not cheat or lie" you end up doing both simultaneously, "I promise I'll be there" you end up going somewhere else, and finally the most commonly broken promise "I promise I'll never leave you" this is the probably the worst statement that could ever come out of anyone's mouth because 95% of the time it gets broken. I mean think about it, when you were in high school (or if you still are) we threw this word around so easily, yet really think about it, this is IMPOSSIBLE to keep. You're bound to end up with someone else, you're bound to end up disagreeing and breaking up, or even if love is there and you do stay together, you die eventually, thus leaving the person right? So yet again, it's an un-kept promise. This I think is already common knowledge.

Why do we still believe it? We buy into every word that they throw at us, believing with all of your heart that they really won't leave you. In theory, it's a lot like telling an 18 year old that hey Santa's real. We know it's not true, but we still believe it, we still take the bait. Not the smartest decision, but can we really help it? I mean can you honestly tell yourself that whoever is telling you that is telling you a big fat juicy lie? Is it in our nature to doubt such things? and even if it's not in our nature can we actually tell ourselves that it isn't true? Or am I the only sucker here? Do I believe in the goodness of people too much? Do I believe in the fairy tale ending that everyone deserves? Do I believe that everyone is capable of goodness, that everyone is capable of sticking to their word? I mean I myself have used the "I'll never leave you" line before, obviously I didn't stick to it. I'm not being Pontius-Pilatey about it, I'm just asking myself and you, Why do we still believe this crock of shit?

Bright side of it I guess is that at the end of the day, there's still hope inside most of us. Hope that one day, that statement will actually hold true.

"To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make somebody want to go and do that very thing." -Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

8 comments:

  1. We believe crappy promises cuz it provides us security that a person would do what he had promised.

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  2. people have the innate need to hold on to something, to believe and to hope... no matter how crappy that may sound like..

    human nature is hard to express. >shrugs<

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  3. *explain... (not express)
    EPIC FAIL >.<

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  4. Love held us bound to that promise...it is not a matter of if it will last until forever...we believe in that promise in as much as we believe in that person and the love they have for us...today is what is important...tomorrow we just have to wait...

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  5. because sometimes that promise is indeed kept, in ways that people just can't seem to understand(doesn't exclude me).and the fact that it's almost impossible to keep, urges almost everyone to promise that, thinking they would prove the math wrong..

    great job.i'm a fan.

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  6. we believe in promises because that's the only thing that we can really hold on to the person who mentioned it.

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  7. "Why is it that the more you promise to do something the harder it is to do?" -- how very true. I can't even count the number of times I promised to do something and failed to do it. And the reverse? Well, my subconscious is way too intelligent to be tricked like that. LOL

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  8. I think we believe in promises because it's the positive side of hope. Because we can't really hope for something impossible, but when there's a promise in it, we try to believe that could be conceivable without other people thinking we're crazy. We knew certain promises to us takes a futile effort to be kept. But we hope, because it's the safest way to believe in lies without being blamed along the way; because at the end, we can just say "I believe because he/she promised", then you go on excused for hoping so much. :) love your blog...

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