If You Can't Say Anything Nice - Sing It Instead

"If you can't say something nice.... don't say nothin' at all."

(brought to you by Disney's own Thumper)

9 times out of 10 I'm a pretty firm believer in this idea/philosophy. However, sometimes this is a really hard concept to live by. Because sometimes the thing that needs to be said, can't really be put in a "nice" way. 

Sometimes the truth just hurts. 

Luckily Disney provided children with a second alternative to these kinds of sticky situations: If you can't say anything nice - maybe you should try singing it instead. 

Examples of this phenomenon include classical favorites such as He's a Tramp, Cruella de Vil, and Colors of the Wind. Usually being called a tramp is not something to be boasted of, but Disney pulls it off rather well, I think. Even when I was old enough to actually understand exactly what a tramp is, I still thought they had one of the cutest puppy-love-stories ever. And Cruella de Vil? Yeah... that song is nothing but one of the protagonists trashing the villain. But hey - it works, no? And Pocahontas basically uses Colors of the Wind to tell John Smith how close minded his view of the world is. 

Surprised??

Probably not, which is fine.

Take home point - The world is constantly lacking in niceness and friendliness and whenever at all possible, humans should just suck it up and either say something nice or not say anything at all. And when that's not possible? Well, now you have a second option.