Uncle Harvey....

Dear World,

There is a phrase that seems to be making a comeback that grates on my nerves so badly that I think if I hear it again I will possibly crack my teeth or potentially even break my jaw from clenching them so hard. It puts me so on edge, and tonight I figured out why.

I was speaking to my daughter and she said something that was not the offending phrase, but the words were so eerily similar to that maxim of misery, that I finally understood why I hate it so much.

What is this calamitous catchphrase?

"It's All Good."

I loathe this locution. Firstly, it is mostly untrue. But what I learned tonight is that it is used to avoid having to judge anything. Really though, for society to work and to be able to maintain a civil and moral way of life people need to judge. They need not necessarily condemn other people to the outer edges of life, they need not discard other people, but if we don't judge- and by that I mean we do not weigh the actions of others against a set of behaviors we consider appropriate-if everything is "good" and there are no value judgments, well then there are problems.

Is man good or evil? Neither, he is swayed by both, but man is very swayed by the opinion of others, and if things are deemed unacceptable, then those negative behaviors are more likely to be stopped, or at least not become the norm. Is this a double edged sword in which goodness can also be judged, and thereby attacked? Absolutely. Yet, a world of "It's all good," is a world of moral relativity, it's a world where whims of man take on more weight then they should.

There are those who may argue they say this when referring to frustrating moments in their lives, moments when they need to remind themselves that there is a Creator who is looking out for us, even if we do not always see the goodness in His ways, we know that they are good. Absolutely, I believe that, but I honestly do NOT believe that this expression is trying to convey this lofty idea.

So please, please, please-stop using this.

My dentist is rooting against me on this one.