Rest in peace R.I.P.

This may seem like an odd, random rant, but it's my blog and as the URL suggests, it is my rants, so here goes.

I really, really hate the expression R.I.P. I don't hate the phrase those initials stand for. I think that's a perfectly acceptable desire, that the deceased person's soul, spirit, whatever rest in peace. I would certainly want that for myself or any of my loved ones. That they not be tortured in some middle ground between life and death or in some hellish afterlife.

But those initials just rub me the wrong way. No, to be honest, they piss me off. R.I.P. It seems so crude. So dismissive. So insensitive. I know it's usually meant well, but I just cringe every time I read those three initials. My visceral reaction is so negative. Those letters just seem so ugly to me. Maybe it's because they spell out a word that is so at odds with peaceful resting.

So if you're ever in the position to offer me condolences on a loss (which I hope you won't be, but my parents aren't spring chickens), please don't say R.I.P. State that you wish my loved one rest in peace all you want, but please, please don't use those letters.