I Hate BLANKing. I Love Having BLANKed.

Dorothy Parker is famous for...  Er.  Something about a table?  I dunno.  Has anyone really read anything she ever wrote?  Whoever she was, she once said:

I hate writing.  I love having written.

Which is a very true statement for many writers.  Writing is deeply painful.  Here's a picture of a writer, working on a novel:

And here he is again, after finishing:

I was thinking how Dorothy's phrase was useful for other things than writing. For example:

I hate working out.  I love having worked out.

Because working out feels like this:

And afterwards, you get an endorphin rush and big muscles and feel like this:

Or, how about:

I hate having children.  I loved having children.

Okay, doesn't make a lot of sense until you consider the two senses of the phrase "having children."

Dorothy's expression works for so many different situations I wonder if  ghosts say it to each other.

I hated living.  I love having lived.

Yeah, don't live like that.  Enjoy the moment.