The other day I saw a chalkboard sign outside of a smoothie shop that read, «when life gives you strawberries, make a smoothie.» It was was bewildering to me. For one, they completely missed the point of the adage they were referencing. The reason why you make lemonade when life gives you lemons is because lemons are way too sour to eat on their own. The quotes about seeing the silver linings in terrible situations.. When life gives you strawberries, you eat the strawberries. Because the glistening, red berries taste damn good on their own.
 

Once I finally calmed down a bit, I thought more about the original phrase and how smug and obnoxiously condescending it is, reducing life’s relatable and unpleasant obstacles to a shallow metaphor. As if it’s easy to just turn all your problems into a tasty beverage. Here’s our new version of the phrase: When life gives you lemons, go look at funny memes and let the lemons dry up and shrink in your little fruit basket.