Daily writing prompt

If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?

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Imagine the word ‘Expectation’ vanishes from your life.

You have no expectation from anyone. Won’t you be happy? Won’t you be relaxed and cool about your life?

One may argue that life without expectation will be boring and monotonous.

True!

That’s the flip side. But look at the pros. You have no expectation from your spouse. You may loose the excitements of ‘surprises’ in life. But you will also not have those hard hitting surprises that may shatter your life, or perhaps that moment.

Consider an example where a husband, perhaps rarely, decides to surprise his wife by presenting her with a dress or a pendent. The moment the thought comes in his mind, he starts visualizing the ‘expected outcome’ of his action. His wife would hug him out of joy.

He sets out of his office and goes to the shop. He buys the stuff and (almost) runs towards his home. He rings the bell, hides the gift, and stands with a straight face. The wife opens the door.

‘Close your eye’. The husband declares. The wife obeys. ‘Give me your hand’. He says, and the wife willfully obeys, expecting something. She has a smiling face, visibly exciting about the surprise.

He hands over the gift.

She quickly opens the packet, tearing the gift wrapping paper into pieces.

She looks at the gift and all the excitement vanishes from her face.

‘What have you got’? She looks at her husband and says. ‘This is why I don’t want you to surprise me. I already have the same thing’. She bangs the gift on the table and walks away.

The husband stands spellbound, his world shattered!

Expectation killed the moment for both of them.

There are numerous examples of expectations going haywire.

Expectation from parent to children, from children to parents, between friends and some of the transactional relationship between colleagues.

Life will be cool without expectation!