At the end of the day.

I've been hearing this phrase an awful lot lately. I don't like it because it's arbitrary and meaningless. May the muse commence:

at the end of the day
something that you say before you give the most important fact of a situation

I understand this to mean the idiom its just several words strung together that people say before the most important fact, without a reason. That's really stupid. Why not just say I'm going to give the most important fact now? If you're going to use an idiom it should mean something. The idiom should be changed to have a meaning. I'll use the rest of this blog to help develop this meaning.

Let's start by looking at some art. That's something I don't say very often. You don't want to be in my company at an art museum.

Evening: The End of the Day (After Millet) - Van Gogh

This painting shows a man who has been in the field all day harvesting millet. It looks like this man has worked so hard he is a little bit weak in the knees. I can see the difficulty he's having with his coat. And you can imagine this man will strain his back just to pick up his hat. And in the morning he will do it all over again. 

In my quick search for "at the end of the day" I found another cultural example of this phrase and it is rather fitting with its Van Gogh connection. We'll play a guessing game.

Their names both start with 'v'

They both have "go" sounds in their names

They're both French

They're both artists

They're both dead

I'm talking about Les Miserables, people, the famous French epic written by the famous French writer, Victor Hugo, that was turned into the famous, originally French, musical. 

The original premiered in Paris in 1980. One of the songs written for the musical was "La Journée est Finie." The english version is a loose translation of the original and the title is "At the End of the Day," but the argument still holds. Here's an excerpt from "At The End Of The Day": 

"At the end of the day you're another day older,

And that's all you can say for the life of the poor.
It's a struggle, it's a war,
And there's nothing that anyone's giving.
One more day, standing about, what is it for?
One day less to be living.
At the end of the day you're another day colder,
And the shirt on your back doesn't keep out the chill.
And the righteous hurry past,
They don't hear the little ones crying...
And the winter is coming on fast, ready to kill.
One day nearer to dying!"
Les Miserables - At The End Of The Day Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

These works are the essence for what "at the end of the day" should mean. After toiling in the field, after fighting for subsistence, little else matters. You wipe your brow and continue.

If you really want to use the phrase "at the end of the day" I propose that the idiom is only used in the context of gruelling hardships, not when regarding something as "easy" as doing some chemistry. At the end of the day, you just have to think about the mass of the molecule. This doesn't work. Of course I'll listen to what she has to say but at the end of the day, it's my decision. This doesn't work. I can't think of an example of the use of the phrase at the end of the day based on my definition, or I would share it. 

So if you're going to use an idiom, use one with a meaning and know this meaning. Or just swap it out with a simpler word or more original phrase.