the.com/vale of tears
Earth, affectionately: the waiting room before whatever's next.
means A phrase for earthly life as a place of sorrow and hardship to be endured before something better.
from From Latin 'vallis lacrimarum,' rooted in Christian tradition — it appears in the hymn Salve Regina, where the faithful are described as weeping exiles in this world below, longing for heaven. 'Vale' here just means valley, so the image is literal: a low, sunken place you walk through, not live in — tears pooling in the lowland of mortal existence before the ground finally rises.
- origin
- medieval Latin hymn, Salve Regina, still sung today
- worldview
- life as temporary exile, not the final destination
- modern use
- now mostly deployed sarcastically about Mondays
- cheerful cousin
- stoics agreed, just with less crying and more shrugging