Shit happens” is a common slang phrase expressing that life is full of unpredictable events, and bad things can happen to people for no particular reason.
The origin or earliest use of the phrase is uncertain. The phrase was probably introduced to print by Connie Eble, in a publication identified as UNC–CH Slang (presumably the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), in 1983
The phrase was popularised in the 1994 film Forest Gump, a lovely “feel good” movie starring Tom Hanks as Forest Gump. When Forrest was running across America, a bumper sticker designer asked him about whatever he wanted to say so he could put it on a bumper sticker and sell it. At the time, Forrest stepped on dog excrement, as the other guy said to him “Whoa! Man, you just ran through a big pile of dog shit!”, then Gump said “It happens”, the guy replied, “What, shit?” Gump replied “Sometimes”; and the slang was created.
Quotes:
“Life boils down to standing in line to get shit dropped on your head. Everyone’s got a place in the queue, you can’t get out of it, and just when you start to congratulate yourself on surviving your dose of shit, you discover that the line is actually circular.”
Very philosophical, and life can be like that.
A few more cynical and politically incorrect expressions might include:
• Calvinism — Shit happens because you don’t work hard enough.
• Lutheranism — Shit happens, but as long as you’re sorry, it’s OK.
• Catholicism — If shit happens, you deserved it. You were born shit, you are shit, and you will die shit.
No matter what your religious affiliation and apologies for the cynicism –shit does happen. It can happen at the most inconvenient times, and it can cause us bother. There is a skill in handling these “unfortunate situations”.
If you saw the film Forest Gump, and saw what happened when he stepped into the dog pooh, he didn’t lose his cool or blow up. In fact, Forest Gump was a very good example for all of us to follow.
Think about the last time you encountered a string of mishaps. Your travel mug full of hot, delicious coffee spilled all over your clean outfit just as you were getting ready to leave the house. You broke your favourite necklace when it caught on your zipper. As you were grabbing your cell phone it fell out of your hand and crashed onto the concrete. Perhaps your computer died while you were travelling away from home and you can’t get to the store to have it fixed. Maybe you missed your bus by one minute and now have to wait 15 minutes for the next one, and this will make you late for work or school. I could go on and on with these examples, but I think you get the picture. Annoying and sometimes expensive accidents hamper your ability to focus on getting stuff done that needs to get done
How do you typically react when you face this kind of frustration? Do the swear words come flying out of your mouth? Do you blame yourself for your clumsiness or stupidity? Perhaps you blame the broken or damaged object itself (“that stupid coffee mug”). Maybe you wonder if you’ve done something wrong that deserves this kind of punishment or retribution.
You might even magically wish you could turn the clock back a minute or an hour and somehow magically prevent the misfortune from occurring. Although these reactions might perhaps ease your emotional burden, it’s unlikely that they will make you feel better. They certainly won’t reduce your stress levels, especially if things spiral out of control—the spilled coffee makes you late for work, which in turn gets you in trouble with your boss, et cetera.
There are some simple coping strategies that you could practice to reduce the stress from these everyday hassles.
• Problem-focused coping, where you attempt to change a fixable situation that is causing the stress. When your computer dies, you go through some basic trouble-shooting steps or find a number to call for tech support. When your necklace breaks. Instead of throwing it out, you see if you can restore the broken link.
• Emotion-focused coping, where you try to make yourself feel better about a situation that you can’t change. You missed your bus, and there’s nothing you can do about that except to calm down and try to make the best of it.
There is no one best way to cope. Forrest Gump even ran across America. He coped very well.
In summary, shit happens. Get over it, and cope.
Click on Samantha — one of her spells went wrong!