Question of the Day, 71:

Are things going downhill supposed to be good, or bad?

I'm asking because you'll hear people say "It's all downhill from here," and you'll hear people say stuff like "once you're 40, things start to go downhill," and they seem to mean it both good and bad. As in: You're coasting downhill, so life is easy. Or as in you've hit your peak, now things will never be as good.

Shouldn't we, as a society/race/species decide what the meaning of a saying is going to be before we use it?

But maybe it's too complicated for that -- because if you ride a bike downhill, if you ever intend to go back to where you started from, you're going to have to go uphill again at some point -- so going downhill could mean good now, bad later. But if you're old and your life is going downhill that may mean that the hardest part is over and while you'll never hit that peak again, you're still going to be taking it easy -- and, for the most part, you'll still be pretty high up on the mountain.

Or am I overthinking it?

I propose we just decide once and for all whether downhill is good, or bad. And I'm going to do the deciding. It's good. So from here on out, when you say someone's going downhill or you say it's all downhill from here, you mean that in a positive way.