Expectation is the root of all heartache? Shakespeare?

NOT! (On both counts.)

Yet I saw this quote, which someone apparently has alleged to be from Shakespeare, shared on FB by a young friend - well, the 20-ish daughter of a good friend of ours.

Now, we're a couple decades into the internet age, and (most of us) have learned that there's a lot of crap zipping around via e-mail and the web, and the mere fact that something comes to us electronically has stopped filling us with the wondrous, false sense of inerrancy that it used to have. So apparently people have started misattributing their nonsense to respected people in an effort to restore their ability to seem profound. But hey, the internet also offers the discerning eye an easier way to do very quick research. You don't have to read all of Shakespeare's work for yourself before you can call "b.s." on someone. A simple Google search on the suspect phrase leads to this link (among the many misattributions to the once-dubious-but-now-highly-respected William).

Well, of course, my simple, "Not Shakespeare" comment (without hyperlink) yielded the appropriately skeptical reply at some point overnight (since this family lives on the West Coast): "Who is it by?"

Here's how I responded:

Who knows? Some wannabe who was aiming for the profound and missed the mark, who figured that putting the Bard's name on it would make it sound more universally true. Try telling this short-sighted, simplistic crap to someone who has just buried a piece of their heart: their parent, best friend, spouse, or child.

Now, do our expectations cause conflict and pain sometimes? Sure. Often even. But "the root of all"? Not even close. The truth is: heartache can easily be completely avoided by simply not loving. The price of love is hurt. It is not love if you are not willing to experience the hurt, just narcissism with the trappings of something better. It is the willingness to bear the heartache of it that is the test of love, and which makes it worthy of our aspiration.

If anyone tells you less, don't cast them out of your life, but neither entrust your heart to them.